Two independent TDs are going to the High Court in Dublin in a bid to have constituency boundaries redrawn ahead of the upcoming general election.
Catherine Murphy, TD for Kildare North and Finian McGrath, TD for Dublin North Central, said today they would bring a motion before the High Court on Monday in an effort to right what they called "the constitutional wrong that the use of the current electoral constituencies will commit."
The TDs claimed 11 of the 43 Dail constituencies were in breach of the established and accepted limits where the proportion of TDs to population was concerned.
The Dublin West constituency was under represented by almost three times the limit, they said.
In a joint statement they said: "Democracy is supposed to mean equality, but with five constituencies having too many and six having too few TDs proportionate to their respective populations, the voting power of all Irish people is decidedly unequal."
They added: "People fought and died for our right to live in and shape this democracy and to let this manifest infringement of our constitution pass without taking action against it is simply unacceptable to us.
"We're angry that the Government has let it get this far and we're seeking for the matter to be dealt with as a matter of urgency." In an affidavit sworn on their behalf they accused the Government of having failed to ensure Dail constituencies were redrawn to take account of the changes in the population as detailed in the results of the results of the 2006 Census.
It said the Government should have ensured, as far as practicable, that the population in each constituency was the same across the country.
Boundaries should have been redrawn "so as to ensure a ratio of members of population of not less than one member to each 30,000 of population and not more than one member for each 20,000 of population," according to the affidavit.