Constituency Review Submission from Christopher O Rourke
Christopher O Rourke
Submission ID: S518
Date
10/05/2023
Constituency
Louth, Meath East, Meath West
To Whom it May Concern.
Meath whilst contiguous as a County Council is being I’ll represented at a national level it is split across four constituencies something that does not occur in other parts of the Country .
Meath is currently split as follows.
Most of Costal Meath is part of the Louth constituency.
Part of north Meath is part of the Cavan/Monaghan constituency The rest of the county is split across two constituencies,and part of eastern Co Westmeath is part of Meath West .
This is entirely at odds with respect to the Electoral Reform Act 2022 Part Il 57(2)(c) the breaching of the county boundaries shall be avoided as far as practicable (d) each constituency shall be composed of contiguous areas , How is it that a county like Meath or any county is allowed to be split into four divergent directions .
I would respectfully suggest to the commission that this matter is considered an aberration that must be foremost in your deliberations for correction.
I would like to make the following points in relation to the Boundary Review .
The small area of Laytown Bettystown is currently in Louth constituency should be moved back into Meath East Constituency.
Meath has seen the biggest population increase since the last census and is continuing to grow Louth could maintain a 5 seater with its current population without the Laytown and Bettystown piece included .
Evidence would suggest that restoring the Meath County Boundry would leave a very easy solution of providing two 4 seater constituencies in Meath East and Meath West,thus helping to engage the affected communities and restore voter turnout
Kind Regards
Christopher O Rourke