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THE LATEST ADJUSTMENTS to the boundaries for Dáil constituencies have been published today – in a wide-ranging adjustment to over a dozen boundaries that sees the Dáil lose eight TDs.
The report of the Constituency Commission outlines significant changes to the boundaries within Dublin and Cork, as well as a radical reform of constituencies in Connacht and Ulster, as well as in the midlands regions.
The overall number of constituencies, which currently stands at 43, is cut to 40 in the changes.
The most straightforward changes come from the merger of paired constituencies within certain counties -with the two constituencies in counties Kerry, Tipperary and Donegal set for merging into county-wide five-seaters.
In Donegal’s case, nine electoral divisions in the south of the county are transferred into the new Sligo-Leitrim constituency which now contains all of the latter county, as well as some western parts of county Cavan. Cavan-Monaghan, having lost some western territory, goes from 5 seats to 4.
Elsewhere in Connacht, Mayo – the home turf of Enda Kenny, which boasts four FG TDs out of its five – loses the Ballinrobe electoral area into Galway West, and falls from five seats to four. Galway West remains a five-seater having taken on this extra part of Mayo.
Galway East loses some of its territory west of the Shannon into a new Roscommon-Galway area, with both constituencies being 3-seaters.
Dublin’s constituencies undergo some of the most radical changes, with Dublin North gaining the Swords and Kilsallaghan areas, as well as some ground from Dublin North-East, as it becomes a new five-seater called Dublin Fingal.
Dublin Central loses some territory to Dublin West and to Dublin North-West, losing one seat to become a three-seater, with Dublin West remaining a four-seater as a result of its expanded territory, and Dublin North-West retaining its 3 TDs.
The reduced Dublin North-East and Dublin North-Central are merged into a new five-seater called Dublin Bay North, while Dublin South-East will take on the new name of Dublin Bay South – and retains its 4 TDs – as it absorbs some of both Dublin South and Dublin South Central.
Dublin South suffers the most drastic loss south of the Liffey, as it goes from 5 TDs to 3 and gets renamed ‘Dublin Rathdown’ – with other parts of its territory being lost to Dublin South-West, which becomes a 5-seater as a result of its growing population. Dublin South-Central loses one seat, from 5 to 4.
The Dún-Laoghaire Rathdown council area will now be served by two constituencies, the new three-seat Dublin Rathdown, and the four-seat Dún Laoghaire – the home of Labour leader Eamon Gilmore – which also gains small parts of the former Dublin South.
The map below – which you can click here to download in a high-resolution PDF – shows the new constituency layout in Dublin:
There are significant changes proposed in Munster, too. The entire county of Kerry will now be one five-seater, returning the western part of Limerick which joins with the rest of the non-city area to remain a three-seater. Limerick City, which takes on parts of the county constituency, remains a four-seater.
In Cork, some territory is moved from Cork North-Central to Cork North-West, undoing the transfers in 2009, and keeping the latter as a three-seat area.
Cork North-Central, in turn, takes some territory from Cork South-Central – breaching the natural boundary of the River Lee – to retain its own four seats, with Cork South-Central – the home turf of FF pair Micheál Martin and Michael McGrath – losing one of its five representatives to become a four-seater as a result.
Cork East (four seats) and Cork South-West (three seats) remain unchanged.
Tipperary’s two constituencies are also merged into a single five-seater, with the former Tipperary South returning some parts of Waterford as teh latter county is restored to its county boundaries and retains its four seats.
However, a significant chunk of north-west Tipperary – just north of Nenagh – will cross the provincial boundary and become part of a new three-seat Offaly constituency, as the former Laois-Offaly (five) splits into two three-seat areas.
The new Laois area in some parts of Kildare South, which remains a three-seater thanks to a small adjustment within the county which results in some central areas moving from Kildare North to Kildare South. Kildare North remains a four-seater.
The two Meath and Louth constituencies – the latter being home to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams – are unchanged, as is the five-seat Carlow Kilkenny area represented by environment minister Phil Hogan, and the two five-seaters in Wicklow and Wexford.
The commission also has authority over the European Parliament constituencies, but has recommended no change there – with four three-seaters representing Dublin, Munster, most of Leinster, and Connacht-Ulster including the remainder of Leinster.
The changes will not take immediate effect, however – a new Electoral Act is required to define the constituency boundaries, and the amendments will only kick in when the next elections take place.
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Best of luck to him , I will always have great respect for Hugo Chavez for trying to be a president for the common man and for sending the yank vultures and their puppets packing .
Absolutely 100% agree with you. Any one in any doubt should google John Pilgers documentary, the war on democracy. Chavez is a man of the people that big business want to see the back of.
Great documentary by Oliver Stone about Chavez “South Of The Border” worth a watch, tells how the US tried and failed to bring him down. Great interviews with him and other South American leaders about their refusal to be governed by US policy, it’s an eye opener.
Best wishes to him. He’s an inspiration.
don’t know much about Chavez,
but the fact that extreme right-wing yanks seem to hate him, makes me think he’s ok.
anyway – hope he defeats his cancer.
There is a very real possibility that his cancer was deliberately induced by the US military industrial complex in my opinion.
seriously? bit too much conspiracy perhaps?
Not really Simon. The CIA tired similar stuff with Fidel down the years.
They tried to give him cancer?
How do you give somebody cancer?
Exactly..
I can selectively quote parts of a random article from the internet too, first line under the heading… “Can you give someone cancer? If they’re healthy probably not”.
You want me to copy and paste entire articles here?
The point – and it’s embarrassingly obvious – is that while nobody knows whether his cancer was deliberately induced, it’s a possibility and a reasonable suspicion given the various ways the US tried to murder Fidel Castro down the years.
ha you quoted one part of an article to suit your own agenda! The US are capable of most things, so if they wanted rid of him I’m sure they could find a more effective way then giving him cancer, which your article goes onto say is a highly unreliable way of assassinting someone.
It’s highly unreliable yea but very discrete , I know it’s what I’d do it can’t be traced
A dose of radiation sufficient to appreciably increase cancer risk would undoubtably cause acute radiation sickness (about 3 to 5 sieverts).
Then, if the exposed person survives radiation sickness, there would be a ~10 year latency period before there’s an increased risk of Leukaemia, then if they don’t get Leukaemia, another 10 to 20 years would pass before there’s an increasing chance of solid cancers.
The maximum increase chance of cancer from radiation is ~40%, the risks are not higher as the exposed person would more likely die from radiation sickness at higher doses, they wouldn’t survive to get cancer years later.
Do you have a source for that, David?
Studies of the Mortality of Atomic Bomb Survivors, Report 14, 1950–2003: An Overview of Cancer and Noncancer Diseases
The Japanese Life Span study is the gold standard, 130,000 atomic bombing survivors monitored since the mid-1950s, since Japanese doctors started to notice increased cases of leukaemia.
The Excess Relative Risk per Gray (roughly the same as a Sievert) is 0.42, since the baseline cancer rate is ~30%, this gives a cancer rate of 42.6% for 1 Gray dose.
For an additional increase of 40% (30+40%)= 70% cancer rate, the radiation dose would need to be massive, undoubtably accompanied with severe radiation sickness.
Where is that’s documentary pls love to see it
Here’s a great one filmed by two Irish reporters, they were in the Chavezs’ office when the coup happened. They stayed behind, when Chavez and his ministers fled; they said they wanted to film the revolution happening. They got both sides from the inside, it’s a real eye opener, an excellent documentry:
Venezuela has one of the most democratic systems in the world.
Here’s what former US President Jimmy Carter of the Nobel Prize-winning election monitoring Carter Center had to say about it:
“Of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”
All Venezuelan expatriates get a vote. Those people are likely to vote for the opponents of Chavez, yet he still gives them the vote.
The people of Venezuela keep voting for Chavez, because he is of them.
It’s amazing that just because Chavez has stood up to the United States people make him out to some kind of hero. He presides over a massively corrupt country, which usually happens when one man resides in power way beyond what is healthy for any supposedly democratic country.
He keeps getting elected. Pesky democracy!
Because he has made it easier and easier for him to get elected. Himself and Putin have a lot in common.
At least he’s not owned and operated by Goldman Sachs, like BOTH of the selected candidates in the USA’s farcical overture to democracy.
That article doesn’t even back you up. Anybody that knows anything about cancer knows you can’t give somebody cancer.
Are you pretending to be dim or does it come naturally. Read. The. Comments. Again… S l o w l y !
I agree its unlikely but to rule if out is daft , best way to kill someone is to make it look like an accident.
Petr no need to get upset because you were wrong
Exactly, Kevin. Quite a simple point to grasp really.
A large dose of dioxins will induce cancer in most people. There are many carcinogenic compounds that can be administered covertly in food. It’s not science fiction
No, the amount of Dioxin required to greatly increase cancer risk would cause obvious symptoms – Chloracne. Just look at what happened to Viktor ‘s Yushchenko’s face after he was poisoned by Dioxin.
Caracas is one of the most dangerous places on earth. I suspect Damascus would be safer. Roaring inflation and shortages makes his rule not much of a success. It would be possible to have clinics in slums areas without wrecking the economy. He or his heir won’t be able to buy support for much longer.
I wish Mr Chavez all the best and I admire what he has done for working people in his country and the region. For too long the United States have treated South America as their own private plantation.
have your say