Dear Commissioners,

I have read many articles recently speculating that the additional European Parliament seat is to be allocated to the Midlands / North West Region by tagging on the Counties of Laois and Offaly to an already sprawling constituency. This would increase the number of Counties in the Constituency to an unbelievable 15 representing in excess of over 50 percent of the land area of the State.

The current Midlands North West constituency was created in 2014 to reflect the reduction in representation from 12 to 11 MEP’s. With the increase to 14 seats it is perhaps timely that the Commission revert to the traditional situation of having 4 Euro Constituencies which would have a lot more commonality of issues in farming/fishing/industry and transport for instance and would be less unwieldy from a representation perspective.

I therefore propose the following;

1. Dublin Constituency – unchanged.
2. South – the six counties of Munster
3. East – the province of Leinster without the Counties of Louth, Longford and Westmeath.
4. Border, Midlands and West comprising the current BMW Region without Laois and Offaly.

This proposal would ensure a fairer and more cohesive representation and approach to issues affecting the respective constituencies and have a proportionate representation in the parliament for each constituency.

1. Dublin  4 seats,1 MEP per 364,538
2. South 4 seats, 1 MEP per 343,336
3. East 3 seats,1 MEP per 376,508
4. BMW 3 seats,  1 MEP per 442,606

The BMW region is obviously under represented to an extent in this scenario but the smaller geographic base and more common issues to be promoted by the MEP’s can compensate for the divergence in numbers. The Commission may take the easy option of just adding Laois Offaly to Midlands / North West but with 14 seats now available I encourage you to revert to the traditional 4 Euro Constituency principle.

Thank you for considering my submission and I wish you success in your deliberations.