Delay to allocation of extra Irish seat in Europe “ridiculous”

An Irish MEP says the Electoral Commission’s decision not to include Ireland’s extra MEP seat in the upcoming review of constituency boundaries is “ridiculous.”

The Department of Local Government has confirmed that the report, due out on Wednesday, will be based on the existing 13-seat allocation, rather than the proposed new allocation of 14 seats.

Markey, who represents the EU Midlands-North-West constituency, said the Commission “should have considered all options.”

The Fine Gael MEP said “the Electoral Commission was well aware of proposals to increase the number of seats in the European Parliament and we finally had a decision from the European Council in July which gives Ireland one extra MEP.”

Ireland is entitled to 14 seats in the next European Parliament, its most since 1999, but the Electoral Commission appears to have favoured redrawing maps ahead of the next Dáil election instead of the European elections, but Markey says the issue “should have been made a priority” as the next European elections are due to take place next June.

“Because the measure is not legally in effect, the Commission has decided to ignore the proposal and will need to prepare a revised report once the decision is ratified by the Parliament. It is ridiculous to think that the Commission cannot even consider the measure, subject to the changes being officially approved.”

Markey noted “it is important to point out that the delay in ratifying the proposal is down to the European Council and not the Parliament. We saw countries bickering for months about the best way to proceed before a final decision was reached last month.”

“We now know that the European Parliament will increase in size from the current 705 seats to 720 but Irish MEPs still don’t know where the extra seat for Ireland will go and whether there will be changes to the EU constituencies as a result. It’s simply not good enough and I would urge the Electoral Commission to issue a recommendation sooner rather than later,” he said.

It has been proposed that the extra Irish seat would go towards Markey’s own constituency of Midlands-North-West, with Dublin tipped to remain on 4 seats.