To Whom It May Concern,

On behalf of the Labour Party constituency of Cork North Central,  we wish to make the following submission regarding the current boundary review:

Constituency Boundary Reviews

1. The number of Dáil seats:

It is our view at the Labour Party Cork North Central constituency that adding 20 additional seats would provide increased certainty for the next decade on the proposed new arrangement of constituencies. Increasing the Dáil up to 180 seats would provide for an average population of 28,464 per TD.

2. Achieving proportional Representation and multi-seat constituencies:

It is our view at the Labour Party North Cork Central Constituency that:

1. The current configuration of constituency sizes still at least in part frustrates the intent of the Constitution and the will of the people. A further increase in the number of either three or four-seaters would only serve to add to the current distortion in the translation of votes into seats, and should be resisted. The trend towards a larger number of larger constituencies should be maintained.

1. As previously outlined, the Commission should increase the overall number of seats to the maximum permitted by law. This would, to the extent permitted, stabilise the situation by future-proofing the constituencies against inevitable further incremental changes. It would also give the Commission flexibility to achieve the goal of ensuring as many larger multi-seat constituencies as possible.

3. European Parliament Constituencies

It is our view at the Labour Party Cork North Central Constituency that:

14 MEP seat scenario:

Revised EU Constituency (14 seat scenario)	Population 2022	Seats	Variance from national average population per MEP
Dublin	1,450,701	4	-0.90%
Midlands North West (with Laois and Offaly)	1,824,109	5	-0.31%
South (minus Laois and Offaly)	1,848,726	5	+1.03

15 MEP seat scenario

Revised EU Constituency (15 seat scenario)	Population 2022	Seats	Variance from national average population per MEP
Dublin	1,606,186	5	-5.95%
Midlands North West (with Laois and Offaly)	1,732,452	5	+1.44%
South (minus Laois and Offaly)	1,784,898	5	+4.51%

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Vittorio Bufacchi

Labour Party North Cork Central Constituency