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Catherine Murphy and Finian McGrath TD have lost their challenge to the constituency boundaries. McGrath says that the case was decided on a “technicality” although it’s not yet clear what that is. One possibility is that neither was from a constituency that was underrepresented according to the 1 TD per 30,000 criterion (one issue being at what level that rule would apply). It’ll be interesting to see the judge’s decision in detail.
UPDATE: The ireland.com report has more detail on the judge’s reasoning. He thinks it’s up to the Oireachtas to sort it out. Another boundary commission soon?
FINAL UPDATE: Thanks to Simon McGarr in comments for a link to a summary of the judgement on the McGarr Solictors website, who represented the independents.
We have a commission; it was activated in April and submissions are welcome now. But the judge appears to have emphasised the importance of sorting this ASAP, which is something.
We need a constitutional change to link constituencies to the population entitled to vote in each constituency – as opposed to the overall population. After all babies and non-citizens can’t vote. Otherwise, we could end up in future years with election results that unfairly benefit the urban constituencies (where most immigrants live) at the expense of the rural ones. The election results should in so far as possible reflect how people voted – not how many non-citizens live in a constituency. Otherwise the people are more likely to end up with a govt they did not want.
More on this, including a brief summary of the Judge’s findings as they were read out in court on the McGarr Solicitors website. Edward McGarr represented Murphy and McGrath in this case.
http://www.mcgarrsolicitors.ie/2007/06/07/constituencies-constitutional-challenge-judgement-delivered/