Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne said that a cap is needed on the number of TDs elected to the Dáil.
The Wicklow-Wexford TD also said the rise in the number of TDs should be balanced with an increase in the number and power of local councillors.
Byrne was speaking following the latest round of Central Statistics Office figures, which show that Ireland’s population now stands at 5,525,600.
In keeping with the constitutional requirement to have 1 TD for every 20,000 to 30,000 people, the next Dáil will need to have a minimum of 185 TDs, up from the current 174 (and up from the 160 in the 2020 general election).
Byrne said, “after the Census next year, and when Dáil constituencies are scheduled for likely revision, we are still on track to need over 190 TDs to meet constitutional requirements of at least one TD for every 30,000 people.”
He said “we will need a referendum to cap numbers, but it will be appropriate to have a broader discussion around how our democracy works (or doesn’t).”
He added that limiting national representative numbers should be balanced with a “significant increase” in the number and power of local councillors.
“We have very weak local government in Ireland and fewer councillors per capita by far than anywhere else in Europe,” Byrne noted.
Ireland has the dubious distinction of being in the bottom five countries in Europe in terms of powers afforded to local democracies, in league with nations such as Hungary, Moldova, Serbia and Russia.
Minister for Housing James Browne, Byrne’s party colleague, has been criticised for exploiting Ireland’s weak local democracy in a bid to further housing delivery at the expense of councillor input.
In July, the government published a series of recommendations on restoring Ireland’s local democracies; the recommendations stopped short of bringing back town councils, which were abolished as an austerity-era measure by the Fine Gael/Labour government in 2014, but suggested restoring municipal councils.