YESTERDAY, THE ELECTORAL Commission recommended that no changes be made to Ireland’s European Parliament constituencies, but this is likely to change soon. 

As part of its remit, the Electoral Commission has been tasked with making its independent recommendations to the Oireachtas on the make-up of Ireland’s electoral constituencies for the next Dáil and European Parliament elections.

It did this yesterday, recommending that Ireland’s constituencies for national elections be increased from 39 to 43 and that an additional 14 TDs be instituted. 

This will bring the total number of TDs in Ireland to 174. 

In addition to this, under the Electoral Reform Act 2022 the Electoral Commission also has responsibility for reviewing boundaries for European elections after the publication of the census.

Currently, Ireland has 3 European Parliament constituencies and 13 MEPs. 

As part of the terms of reference for the Electoral Commission in reviewing the European Parliament constituencies, each constituency must return three, four or five representatives. 

It also stipulates that there should be reasonable equality of representation between constituencies and that there shall be regard to geographic considerations. 

The Commission must also endeavor to maintain continuity in relation to the arrangement of constituencies. 

The Commission undertook its review and recommended that no changes be made to the make-up of how Ireland’s 13 seats are divided or to how the maps are drawn.

However, this was because the European institutions have not yet finished their review on the overall composition of the parliament ahead of next year’s elections which will be held in May 2024. 

In June of this year, the European Parliament voted in favour of adding an additional 11 MEP seats in the upcoming European elections.

Ireland is set to gain one additional seat under the arrangement following a recommendation from the Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO).

In the Electoral Commission’s report yesterday, it noted that during the course of the review of the European Parliament constituencies, the AFCO considered a proposal to allocate an additional one or possibly two seats to Ireland ahead of the next election. 

The Commission said that it expects a formal decision to change the seat allocation for Ireland from the European institutions “imminently” and that it will undertake another short public consultation and fresh recommendation for the European Parliament constituencies if there is a definitive change.

The Electoral Commission The Electoral Commission

Currently, Ireland has three European constituencies: Dublin with 4 MEPs; Midlands-North-West with 4 MEPs; and South with 5 MEPs.

Fine Gael’s Colm Markey, MEP for Midlands North West branded the decision by the Electoral Commission not to include the proposed extra MEP seat for Ireland as “ridiculous”. 

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Markey said the Commission should have considered all options.

“The Electoral Commission was well aware of proposals to increase the number of seats in the European Parliament and we finally had a decision from the European Council in July which gives Ireland one extra MEP,” Markey said.

“Because the measure is not legally in effect, the Commission has decided to ignore the proposal and will need to prepare a revised report once the decision is ratified by the Parliament. It is ridiculous to think that the Commission cannot even consider the measure, subject to the changes being officially approved.

“Given the EU election is just nine months away, this issue should have been made a priority,” Markey added. 

He said it is important to point out that the delay in ratifying the proposal is down to the European Council and not the Parliament.

“We saw countries bickering for months about the best way to proceed before a final decision was reached last month.

“We now know that the European Parliament will increase in size from the current 705 seats to 720 but Irish MEPs still don’t know where the extra seat for Ireland will go and whether there will be changes to the EU constituencies as a result.

It’s simply not good enough and I would urge the Electoral Commission to issue a recommendation sooner rather than later,” Markey said.