13th September 2006, Press Release

Catherine Murphy, TD (Ind) has today expressed her outrage at Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche’s announcement that he will not be appointing a Constituency Commission to examine the potential redraw of Electoral Constituencies until after the official census figures are published in early 2007. Murphy, who has already indicated her intention to seek legal advice on the matter, referred to the Minister’s decision as a "copout" and an effective abandonment of the democratic process". 

"The Constitution states that representation in each Constituency must be equal ‘as far as is practicable’ and that this be measured with reference to the closest census preceding each election. The operative words here being ‘as far as is practicable’. Is it practicable for the Minister to take heed of the preliminary census figures released in April? Yes. Is it practicable for the Minister to establish a commission to examine the situation with a view to introducing a redraw upon the release of the official census figures next year? Yes. So what exactly is the motivation for the Ministers decision? " – Murphy

Department of the Environment is Already Using Preliminary Census Figures Elsewhere

Although Minister Roche does not regard the preliminary census figures as adequate to prompt him into acting in the interests of preserving proportional representation, it has emerged that his own Department will however apply these figures when allocating millions of euro to Local Authorities throughout the country next year under the Local Government Fund. It would appear that the Department of the Environment regards the preliminary census figures as being of sufficient accuracy to decide which Local Authority gets how many million next year, over €885 million was distributed under this fund last year alone. Such dependence on the preliminary census data shows a marked contradiction of the Ministers cautious reaction towards the figures where electoral boundaries are concerned.

"I’m very supportive of the DOE’s use of these preliminary figures for the administration of the Local Government Fund but it does seem a little unusual that the same Department takes two entirely different approaches to one set of figures", stated Murphy.

ENDS

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