An objection is to be officially lodged against Portarlington’s move into the Kildare South constituency, although a public meeting heard on Monday night that it could be an opportunity to have a sitting TD in the town.
The meeting was organised by Fianna Fáil in Portarlington to discuss the contentious recommendations of the Constituency Commission which see a population of more than 12,500 in Laois and Offaly moved to South Kildare.
This will result in the Kildare constituency gain a seat while Laois/Offaly will revert back to a five-seater, instead of two separate three-seat constituencies.
Initially there was outright opposition to the move, but as it became clear that the decision is unlikely to be changed, several people at the meeting said that the voting bloc in Portarlington could give the town a rare opportunity to elect a TD.
“It it’s not broke, then why try and fix it,” Willie Murphy, who chaired the meeting, said.
“We called this meeting because was want to know what’s the next step. Nothing is written in stone… Everything can be changed,” he said.
“There will be people coming in from South Kildare and they won’t even know their way around the estates. They will get lost,” he said.
Deirdre O’Connell Hopkins said the report from the commission was a lengthy 106 page one.
She questioned if the decisions had ever been challenged, as they have always come through and been signed into legislation.
As the population is going to go up again in Laois, she said there would changes again in the future. “Are we going to be left as the poor cousins? What will be the next change?” she said.
Terrible
The move could see voting drop dramatically in the area, Joe O’Dwyer warned. “That would be terrible bad for democracy,” he said.
The recommendations from the Constituency Commission can still be changed, as it has to pass through the Dail and Seanad, Cllr Aidan Mullins said. “This can be defeated,” he said.
“It all the parties are against this, then we can beat this,” he said.
Later in the meeting, Deputy Sean Fleming said “I don’t think it was necessary to make this change, but I don’t think there is anything we can do about it”.
He said they had to be pragmatic on the issue, and there would be further population increase in Laois which has grown by 75% from a population of just 48,000 when he was first elected.
Former Offaly councillor, Tom Nolan said it was now time for ‘plan B, and to back a candidate for the area.
Having missed out on a Dáil seat by just 170 votes, Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick said he had every intention of contesting the next general election in Offaly. He said he would be glad to try to win a seat for Portarlington, even if it sadly won’t be in his home county.
Record
It should be on record, Cllr Padraig Fleming said, “that this group totally objects to the change”. He said it needs to be put down on paper and sent officially. This was seconded by Mr Nolan.
Cllr Fleming said this needs to be done, bearing in mind that the issue will be revisited after the next census.
The correspondence will be sent to the Minister for the Environment, the chairperson of the Oireachtas legislation and the chair of the Constituency Commission.
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