Judge calls for 'urgent' review of electoral boundaries

A HIGH Court judge has called on the Oireachtas to review electoral boundaries - but he dismissed a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the general election.

Mr Justice Frank Clark accepted that some constituencies may need to be redrawn and said finalised census figures should form the basis of the review.

The case was brought by independent TDs Finian McGrath and Catherine Murphy in the run-up to last month's election after they examined population records from the Central Statistics Office.

Mr McGrath said afterwards he was convinced that changes would be made soon. Ms Murphy, who had represented Kildare North since 2005, lost her seat in the May poll.

Using census figures from the CSO, the pair claimed that 10 constituencies were either under- or over-represented because of booming populations and migration.

Mr Justice Clarke ruled that there was an obligation on the Oireachtas, not just the Government, to immediately set in train a review of constituencies. He said the matter was of the utmost importance.

Finalised figures from the census should be used to check whether constituencies were adequately represented by TDs.

It took him an hour and a half to read out the complex ruling.

Complex

Ms Murphy accepted defeat but claimed the review would ensure some success.

"The barrister summed it up well when he said that the state had won the battle but had not won the war. It wasn't a one-sided judgment."

The judge also said the 1997 Electoral Act should be amended accordingly when the review was carried out.

"The fundamental point that we were trying to make was that our citizens were not being treated equally," Ms Murphy said.

"While the judge didn't find that the election was unconstitutional he did accept that the figures were seriously out of line and pointed for the need to urgently deal with the issue."

Ms Murphy said she did not believe the loss of her seat was due to inconsistencies in the electoral boundaries.

Mr McGrath said: "I am disappointed that we lost on a legal, technical, constitutional point. But I'm glad that we took this case" because the judge had said that "the Government are going to have to do something about the constituencies".

The action was taken against Environment Minister Dick Roche, who has responsibility for constituencies, and Attorney General Rory Brady.

Article 16 of the Constitution states that every constituency should have, within reason, the same ratio of TDs per population. Any electoral review is likely to last six months.