Concern at Wexford electoral boundary changes
CONCERN at recent electoral boundary changes in Co. Wexford was expressed in the Dáil by Fianna Fáil Deputy James Browne. On January 11, he said, the Minister of State John Paul Phelan signed a statutory instrument in which he deliberately changed the boundaries recommended by the independent boundary committee for County Wexford in respect of the upcoming local elections.
‘ This has created farcical situations in County Wexford,’ he said. ‘For example, people from Oylegate, some of whom live only 4 kilometres from Wexford town, will now have to drive 40 miles north, through Enniscorthy, to attend civic offices in Gorey for help. People who only live 1.5 miles south of Enniscorthy town, who vote in the town, and who consider themselves to live in its suburbs are now being told that they are Gorey people.
‘ They now have to go to Gorey rather than to the town where they do their shopping, where their families live, where their kids go to school and where they have spent their entire lives.’
Deputy Browne said he could not express the level of disbelief and anger felt by people, especially people in the south of Kilmuckridge municipal district. ‘Glenbrien is pretty much a suburb of Enniscorthy,’ he said. ‘ The people of Glenbrien were bemused when I was out there two weeks ago trying to explain to them that they are now Gorey people. The people in Oylegate are just laughing at the idea that they are part of a town they have no connections to. There might have been some rationale for Oylegate to be put into Wexford town, because parts of it are closer to Wexford town, but most people in Oylegate do their business in Enniscorthy. Putting Oylegate into Gorey, however, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.’
In response, Minister of State Phelan said changes to local electoral area boundaries may only be carried out following the completion of a review by an independent boundary committee.
‘In the case of Wexford, the commitment to consider reducing the size of territorially large electoral areas, together with the requirement to assign no more than seven councillors to each electoral area, has led to the recommendations in the report that would see the creation of six local electoral areas, LEAs, formed, with a focus on the centres of Enniscorthy, Gorey, Kilmore, Kilmuckridge, New Ross and Wexford,’ he said.
‘ The recommendations made in the local electoral area boundary committee reports in respect of LEAs were accepted in full. This is reflected in the statutory instruments which I signed on 19 December 2018.
‘ The overall policy objectives have, in the main, been met, particularly in respect of the creation of distinct town based or urban electoral areas for large urban areas with a population in excess of 15,000.’
The view was taken, he said, that the east coast part of Wexford was more associated with Gorey than with any other town in County Wexford. ‘I have written to the chairman of Wexford County Council asking for consideration to be given by him and the members and executive of the council to changing the statutory instrument if there is a recommendation that it be changed,’ he said.
‘We were limited in respect of the boundary review that the old Enniscorthy area of eight seats and the old Gorey area of eight seats meant that there had to be changes in the district.’