Mixed response to the boundary committee report on electoral area
By Mary Dennehy
THE LOCAL Electoral Area Boundary Committee Report 2018 has been published, and contains recommendations to be introduced before the Local Elections in 2019.
A number of local authority areas, including South Dublin County, were examined by the committee, which reviewed counties and cities with some of the highest rates of population growth between Census 2011 and 2016.
The population of South Dublin County, based on the 2016 census, is 278,767 – a 5.1 per cent increase on 2011’s census population of 265,205.
At present, following changes introduced by the Boundary Commission in 2013, the area has 40 elected members across six local authority areas - Lucan (8), Tallaght Central (6), Tallaght South (6), Templeogue-Terenure (6), Clondalkin (8) and Rathfarnham (6).
However, in recent years there has been some unrest and confusion around the drawing of electoral lines, which in some cases separated communities, leading to a sense of misrepresentation and a blurring of historic, geographical boundaries.
Some 28 submissions were submitted for the South Dublin County Council area to the Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee’s recent review, with a number of recommendations made.
A recommendation has been made to keep the 40 seats but spread them across seven wards instead of six.
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