Mayo to gain a TD as part of Electoral Commission recommendations

MAYO will gain an additional TD as part of the recommendations of the An Coimisiún Toghcháin with electoral divisions currently in the Galway West constituency to be transferred back to Mayo.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s Independent Electoral Commission published its recommendations on Ireland’s Dáil and European Parliament Constituency Review this morning which will see the number of Dáil TDs increase from 160 to 174 and the number of Dáil constituencies to increase from 39 to 43.

With regard to the Mayo constituency, An Coimisiún Toghcháin recommends it becomes a five seat constituency, with the addition of one seat. The Mayo constituency is currently a four-seat constituency with a population of 132,044, an increase of 7,069 (5.66 percent) since 2016.

The constituency had been a five-seat constituency from 1995 to 2013 when it was reduced to a four seater with a significant part of south Mayo transferred to Galway West.

Six electoral divisions in the south eastern part of Co Mayo – Cong, Houndswood, The Neale, Kilmaine, Dalgan and Shrule - with a total population of 5,926 are recommended for transfer to the Mayo constituency from the Galway West constituency.

Submissions received by the Commission were overwhelmingly in favour of removing the breach in the Mayo county boundary with many submissions calling for Mayo to be allocated an extra seat and become a five-seat constituency.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin stated that the primary factors for the Commission in relation to the Mayo constituency was the breach of the county boundary by the Galway West constituency, and the increase of 7,069 of population in the Mayo constituency since the 2016 Census. “The four seat Mayo constituency, with a population of 132,044, has a variance of 11.55 percent which is beyond what the Commission would consider acceptable,” they read in this morning’s report.

The decision to recommend the return of the six electoral divisions will be welcomed by the local population who had made submissions to An Coimisiún Toghcháin calling for the removal of the breach of county boundary.

Ballinrobe-based councillor Michael Burke described the recommendation as a wrong being put right.

“The parts of South Mayo that were in Galway West for the last number of elections have been reinstated to the Mayo constituency. I am delighted that the Electoral Commission has returned the areas in South Mayo which had been in the Galway West Constituency back to the Mayo Constituency for future elections. I was delighted to support the Mayo Fine Gael Organisations submission to the commission along with those of Deputy Michael Ring and Deputy Alan Dillon,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

He added: “I would like to thank Minister Hildegarde Naughton and Senator Seán Kyne for their work in ensuring these areas of South Mayo were not forgotten while they were part of the Galway West Constituency. Many of the works carried out in these areas in South Mayo over the past number of years would not have happened without their assistance.”