AN INCREASE IN the population of Ireland could lead to a redrawing of constituency boundaries in the next general election.
The Government gave the green light to legislation yesterday evening which allows for a cut in the number of TDs. The Irish Examiner and Newstalk are suggesting that the number of TDs will be reduced by around 20 under the Electoral Amendment Bill. There are currently 166 elected TDs.
A Boundary Commission is to be set up to redraw the boundaries of the current constituencies. A political geographer on RTE Radio1′s Morning Ireland suggested that Dublin might see its number of TDs cut by seven seats and Cork might lose three seats. Donegal could be looking at becoming a single constituency.
The Central Statistics Office is due to release preliminary results today from this year’s nationwide Census. These are expected to show a population increase in Ireland of around 220,000, according to RTE. The geographical distribution of this increase will also help determine the refocusing of constituency boundaries.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan announced in May that the Government would reduce the number of TDs in the next Dail – but didn’t specify by how many.
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