Submission to Electoral Commission – Dáil Constituency Review

Fianna Fáil – Dublin South West CDC

The current local government counties of South Dublin County and Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown County has been in place since the 1^st January 1994 with the boundary between these two local government counties remaining unaltered for the past 29 years.

The Constituency Commission in their Report in 2012 adjusted the Constituencies in South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown so that the constituency boundaries aligned with the local government boundaries between the two counties and hence the county boundaries were no longer breached.

It is the general accepted view in the Rathfarnham Area that this current arrangement works well. Residents of the area can readily identify their local and public representatives and hence identify to which local government administrative county in which they reside. Prior to the General Election of 2016, there was confusion for many residents as to which administrative area they were residing in.

It is noted that under the Terms of Reference for the Dáil constituencies review, the Commission is required to have regard that the breaching of county boundaries shall be avoided as far as practical. However, the reference to county boundaries shall be deemed not to include a reference to the boundary of a city or any boundary between any 2 of the counties of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. 

The 2022 Population (Preliminary) for the adjoining constituencies in Dun LaoghaireRathdown is as follows:

Dublin Rathdown         101,155 Dun Laoghaire              132,302

                                      ———- Total                             233,457

The administrative county of Dun Laoghaire – Rathdown can therefore accommodate     8 seats within two Constituencies i.e. with an average population per TD of 29,182.  This is within the ‘standard’ percentage variance for all of the range of total number of members of the Dáil available to the Commission.

Hence, there is no need, based on population requirements, to breach the county boundary between Dun Laoghaire – Rathdown and South Dublin.

It should be noted that if a part of the current Rathfarnham Area in South Dublin County is transferred to the adjoining Constituency of Dublin Rathdown, this would cause particular confusion for residents of that area, as they would be residing in the administrative county of South Dublin while being in the Constituency of Dublin Rathdown, mainly associated with the county of Dun Laoghaire – Rathdown. 

As the current arrangement, based on non-breaching of the county boundary between the two counties, works well, we request that the Commission maintains the status quo in respect of the boundary and that the Rathfarnham Area remains fully within the constituency of Dublin South-West.

We thank you for your attention and your diligent work.