This was a campaign issue for both Fine Gael and Labour. Fine Gaels plans were to reduce the Number of National Politicians by 35%. This can be viewed as a 35% reduction in the 226 TD’s and Senators. To obtain 35% this would add up to the abolition of the Seanad and its 60 members along with taking out 20 of the Dail members. This would leave us with 146 National Politicians, a sustainable number in my view.
Phil Hogan, Minister for the Environment stated today that the reduction would be in the limit of the constitutional requirement for the ratio of Deputies to population. This (Under Article 16, Section 2.2) of the Constitution is set at 1 TD per every 20 to 30 thousand of population. At the moment, it is estimated to that each TD represents an average of 26’500 of people. If Phil Hogan was to go about using the constraint of the constitution, the maximum reduction in my view would be 16 to 150 deputies. And that pushes the average up to over 29’000 in the ratio of TD to population. This would be unsustainable. The 10’000 leeway was set so that the Electoral Commission don’t have to be dividing towns and cities to enure the ratio stays exact.
In my view under the Constitutional Convention the ratio should be reset to One Deputy for not more than 35’000 people and not less than 25’000. This would allow a reduction to 146 TD’s, the ratio, (under current population) would be around 32’000 per TD, which is a sustainable averge per TD. In order to speed things up I believe that if the Minister acts now and gets the Attorney General to draw up the necessary legislation a Referendum to redefine the limits could be included a the time of the presidential election in October. This would add a significant degree of reliability that the government is serious on the issue.
I feel that no more than 20 TD’s should be gotten rid of though as it is important to retain in excess of 140 national politicians to ensure we have a full representative democracy.
Some argue that there will be a democratic deficit in the Oireachtas, with up to 80 members being wiped away and what could be up to 30 in the Lower house. Other countries manage just fine, we should give it a try, and indeed it is still a total reduction or just 35%. It should also be reminded that we have a 12 MEP’s that we send out to Europe. These should be given full attendance rights in the Dail. They should not have voting rights but should be allowed the full rights to speak in debates.
Reference in the Constitution:
Article 16
2° The number of members shall from time to time be
fixed by law, but the total number of members of Dáil
Éireann shall not be fixed at less than one member for
each thirty thousand of the population, or at more than
one member for each twenty thousand of the
population.
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