Constituency Commission

UPDATE July 2018 - Review of European Parliament Constituencies

The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government signed an Order on 24 July 2018 establishing a European Parliament Constituencies Committee under section 5(1A) of the Electoral Act, 1997 to review the European Parliament constituencies.

Constituency Commission Report 2017

The Constituency Commission has presented its report on Dáil and European Parliament constituencies to the Chairman of Dáil Éireann.

The members of the Commission were - Mr. Justice Robert Haughton, of the High Court, who was nominated by the Chief Justice to be chairperson of the Commission. The other members were: Mr. Peter Finnegan, Clerk of the Dáil; Mr. Peter Tyndall, the Ombudsman; Mr. John McCarthy, Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government; and Mr. Martin Groves, Clerk of the Seanad who replaced Ms. Deirdre Lane on the Commission in October 2016.

The Commission was set up on 14 July 2016 following the publication, by the Central Statistics Office, of 'Census of Population 2016 Preliminary Results' and was required to present its report not later than three months after the publication by the CSO of the final result of the 2016 Census. Final results for Census 2016 were published on 6 April 2017.

The report may be purchased from the Government Publications Office. It is also available on this website - www.constituency-commission.ie.

Recommendations on Dáil Constituencies

The Commission recommends that the number of members of Dáil Éireann should be 160 and that there should be 39 constituencies of which 13 will be 5 seat, 17 will be 4 seat and 9 will be 3 seat. The recommendations are summarised below.

• In the Dublin area the constituencies of Dublin Bay South (4 seat), Dublin Fingal (5 seat), Dublin South-Central (4 seat), Dublin Mid-West (4 seat), Dublin South-West (5 seat) and Dublin West (4 seat) should remain unchanged. Adjustments should be made between Dublin Rathdown (3 seat) and Dún Laoghaire (4 seat), and between Dublin North-West (3 seat), Dublin Bay North (5 seat) and Dublin Central which should change from a 3 seat to a 4 seat constituency.

• The counties of Cavan and Monaghan, with some population from the constituency of Meath East, should form the Cavan-Monaghan constituency which should become a 5 seat constituency. The rest of the constituency of Meath East should remain as a 3 seat constituency. The constituencies of Meath West (3 seat), Louth (5 seat) and Longford-Westmeath (4 seat) should remain unchanged.

• The constituency of Donegal (5 seat) should remain unchanged. The counties of Sligo and Leitrim with some population from south Donegal (with no change) and from county Roscommon should form the 4 seat Sligo-Leitrim constituency. The rest of the Roscommon-Galway constituency, with additional population from Galway East, should remain a 3 seat constituency. The rest of Galway East with some population from Galway West should remain a 3 seat constituency.

• Galway West, less some population transferred to Galway East and some Mayo population transferred to Mayo, should remain a 5 seat constituency. Mayo with some additional population from Galway West should remain a 4 seat constituency.

• The county of Clare should form a 4 seat constituency. The City and County of Limerick should form the 3 seat constituency of Limerick County and the 4 seat Limerick City constituency which should include some population from county Tipperary. The rest of county Tipperary (including the part of county Tipperary that is in the existing Offaly constituency) should form a 5 seat constituency.

• The county of Kildare should form a 4 seat Kildare North constituency and a 4 seat Kildare South constituency which should include some population from county Offaly and some population from county Laois. The rest of the counties of Laois and Offaly should be joined to form a 5 seat constituency.

• The entire county of Carlow with the entire county of Kilkenny should form a 5 seat constituency. The entire county of Wicklow should form a 5 seat constituency.

• There should be no change to the five Cork constituencies; Cork East (4 seat), Cork North-Central (4 seat), Cork North-West (3 seat), Cork South-Central (4 seat), Cork South-West (3 seat).

• The constituencies of Kerry (5 seat), Waterford (4 seat) and Wexford (5 seat) should remain unchanged.

Recommendations on European Constituencies.

The Commission recommends no change to the three existing constituencies for the election of the 11 members of the European Parliament; (Dublin 3 seat), Midlands-North-West (4 seat) and South (4 seat).

Constituency Commission

Custom House

Dublin 1

27 June 2017