Naughten calls for redrawn Roscommon/Galway constituency

Local TD Denis Naughten, who represents the Roscommon/South Leitrim area, has urged a review of Dáil constituencies to redraw the electoral boundary to link Roscommon with Galway. His comments were made in a submission made to the Constituency Commission's outgoing review of Dáil constituencies. Another submission the commission received was from Fine Gael - which said the review "could potentially include West Cavan" as part of the existing Longford/Westmeath electoral area. One of the decisions the Constituency Commission is scheduled to make concerns the number of TDs in the Dáil. It is due to recommend a reduction in the number of TDs from the current total of 166 to somewhere between 160 and 153 members. Deputy Naughten (ex-Fine Gael, now Independent) recommended that the number of TDs be set at the higher level of 160. He commented that there are "huge difficulties from a representational point of view" whenever a constituency straddles a provincial boundary. He had "personal experience of this" with the controversial Roscommon/Longford constituency, which was scrapped in 2007. Deputy Naughten pointed out that Roscommon and Galway, on a population basis, would make up 11 Dáil seats and there were numerous "socio-economic and administrative connections" between the counties. These included the fact that: "The Galway/Roscommon hospital, on four sites, provides acute medical services to the population in both counties," and "the town of Ballinasloe services the community of South Roscommon from an educational, health and commercial perspective." He added that linking Roscommon with Galway would facilitate the reunification of county Leitrim, "the current splitting of which between two constituencies has in itself been very controversial." Fine Gael's submission stated that when the new boundaries are drawn up the Connaught/Ulster area would lose at least one seat "but could lose up to three in total, in a 156 seat scenario." Interestingly, the submission does not favour the return of part of the Coole area, redrawn into the Meath East constituency, to Longford/Westmeath. However, it does make the suggestion that part of West Cavan could be included in Longford/Westmeath. Fianna Fail's submission said county Leitrim "should be maintained as a whole county in whatever configuration the Commission recommends." The Commission received many other representations from interested parties prior to its deadline for submissions on January 10. A report detailing the new constituencies is to be published three months after final census results, which are due for publication in April.