Three-seat constituencies and ignoring county boundaries make for bad politics, writes Paddy Harte
From the foundation of the State until 1937, Donegal had eight TDs - all elected for one county constituency. Minorities had maximum parliamentary democracy.
In 1960, when I was first invited to consider a political career, Donegal had seven TDs - three in West Donegal and four in East Donegal.
But the newly elected Fine Gael deputy, Richie Ryan, and a former Labour Parliamentary Secretary, John O'Donovan, challenged the constitutionality of the Electoral Act. They argued it was unfair that it took more voters to elect a deputy in Dublin than in rural Ireland, particularly the west. They won the case in the High Court and successive governments interpreted the decision as requiring electoral boundary revisions after the publication of virtually every set of new census figures.
The impending general election in 1960 was postponed only because the minister for local government, Neil Blaney, and his cabinet colleagues believed the court case would fail. They were wrong and the election was postponed until 1961 to allow time to introduce a new Electoral Bill in line with the ruling of the High Court.
In the new Bill, the Minister divided the Letterkenny electoral area in two, leaving me to decide which side of the bed I got out of to choose which constituency I would contest. I became the only councillor/deputy in the county who represented an electoral area almost half of which could not vote for me in Dáil elections.
After the 1973 general election, the new government made the entire county a single five-seat constituency with Bundoran being linked to Sligo/Leitrim. In 1981 there was further tinkering with boundaries inside the county. It is now only a matter of time for the constituency boundary line to be changed again as the population of Letterkenny continues to increase. What has happened in Donegal has over the years been replicated throughout the State in every constituency, causing unnecessary and unhelpful upset to local community structures within county boundaries, breeding accusations of gerrymandering and manipulation for selfish party advantage.
In 1974 the then minister for local government, Jimmy Tully, carved the city of Dublin into 13 constituencies with three seats each. It led to accusations of gerrymandering and led to the phase "Tullymander".
The ranks of the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition were whipped to support the Bill, which we all rejoiced in doing because we were at last getting even with Fianna Fáil, the real connoisseurs of manipulating constituency boundaries.
It was wrong, and in 1979, to his credit, the then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, established the first Constituency Boundaries Commission consisting of five people who are ex-officio members because of the independent professional position each holds. Nevertheless, despite the massive increase in population in Dublin, the electoral position has not radically changed. The present proposals give Dublin 11 constituencies: two five-seaters, five four-seaters and four three-seaters.
It is time Government looked again at the legislation which requires that each constituency must have at least three and not more than five Dáil seats. In considering constituency boundaries, common sense also suggests that people place a greater value on preserving and protecting county boundaries which Irish society cherished for generations and which are more natural than those which decide Dáil boundaries.
It also seems near impossible, in a situation of fast-changing population numbers, to expect five human beings to draw fair constituency lines with the restrictions three-seaters impose on them.
Before the enactment of the 1937 Constitution, the State had 28 constituencies, six of which had three seats. These included the counties of Louth, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Monaghan and Cork North. Cork City, Cork (East) and Cork (West) had five seats each. Galway had one nine-seater, whereas Kerry, Tipperary, Limerick and Sligo/Leitrim had one seven-seater each.
Nine constituencies had five-seaters and four had four-seaters. Apart from Dublin and Cork, all but one constituency were based on complete county boundaries - the exception was Co Mayo, which had two constituencies: a 4-seater and a 5-seater.
Not long ago, the word "gerrymander" was not far from the lips of leading politicians in the Republic when speaking of Northern Ireland. But, as part of the Belfast Agreement, all Stormont politicians are now elected from six-member constituencies.
Now the boot is on the other foot. Such six-seat constituencies are now an acceptable part of Northern Ireland politics, where it would be anathema to hold elections in three-seaters.
The butchering of Co Leitrim in the recent boundary revision, not for the first time, exposed the terrible wrongs of an unfair system which, if it were to happen in Northern Ireland under unionist rule, would be denounced from every pulpit and political platform in the land. And rightly so.
The Constitution says each constituency should have not less than three members, and the 1997 Electoral Act says not more than five members. Dáil Éireann has the power to alter that law and it will if popular opinion demands it.
I believe it is time to look again at the Act and to consider amending the laws to allow six seats in a constituency where the county boundaries determine the natural constituency.
The Taoiseach has become more focused and experienced on Northern Ireland than he was in 1997, particularly on the method of electing members to Stormont.
In 1997, the Dáil did not consider comparisons with Northern Ireland nor did the Boundary Commission have the opportunity to express an opinion in 2004, but the proposals before the Dáil could be easily amended by linking the two three-seat constituencies in the State and accepting all four- and five-seat constituencies.
A new six-seat constituency law would give greater freedom of choice and be more democratic in Tipperary, Kerry, Cork (South West & South East), Meath, Donegal, Sligo/Leitrim and Roscommon.
The age of three-seat constituencies, except where absolutely unavoidable, could be at an end.
• Paddy Harte was a member of Dáil Éireann from 1961 - 1997