There will also be four new constituencies added.
Ireland will be voting for 14 more TDs at the next general election with the number of constituencies also increased by four.
In the Electoral Commission’s constituencies review, it recommended that the next Dáil has 174 TDs representing 43 Dáil constituencies, up from the current 160 TDs in 39 constituencies.
The recommendation would see a single TD represent an average of 29,593 people, which is down from the current average of 32,182.
Electoral Commission recommends number of TDs increase by 14.
Only seven constituencies will remain entirely unchanged since boundaries were last reviewed: Clare, Cork South West, Donegal, Dublin Central, Kerry, Limerick County and Waterford.
Electoral Commission Chair and Supreme Court Judge Justice Marie Baker said the review arrived at a “solution which best fits the needs of the country as a whole, as our population expands.”
“The Commission is pleased to be in a position to recommend the removal of seven of the 10 existing breaches of county boundaries, reductions in the size of two existing breaches and to propose just three new county boundary breaches in the recommended constituency composition,” she said.
Changes to constituencies in new Electoral Commission review
The recommended changes to the constituencies include:
Dublin Fingal will be split into two constituencies, Dublin Fingal East and Dublin Fingal West, with three seats each, an increase of two seats.
Dublin Mid West gains one seat to become a five-seater, Dublin West will also become a five-seat constituency, while Dublin Rathdown becomes a four-seater, up from three.
Both Wexford and Wicklow will remain as four-seat constituencies, however, there will be a new Wexford-Wicklow constituency with three seats taking territory from the south and north of each county, including Arklow and Gorey.
Galway East take a seat from the Roscommon-Galway constituency. Mayo also gains a seat.
Cork North Central and Cork South Central will both become five-seat constituencies. Laois-Offaly will split into two constituencies with three seats each.
Tipperary will be changed to two three-seaters, Tipperary North and Tipperary South.
Related articles:
- Man caught by UK police after stealing over €900 worth of designer sunglasses from Dublin Airport
- Some Irish flights could be delayed until next week because of UK tech glitch
- Ryan Tubridy offered ‘megabucks’ role with Irish broadcaster
- Imelda May speaks out in support of Molly Malone statue vandalism
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
