Reclaim Ballinrobe/South Mayo

nuac

It was a travesty for South Mayo people to have to vote last Feb in Galway West.

When rearranging constituencies the last census is relied upon.

The relevant date for the census form is always a Sunday night. That imho gives skewed view of an area's population.. E.g. large numbers from Mayo leave the county for Galway, Dublin etc for work or study.

In each case the popltn of Mayo is shown as reduced by one, whereas Galway or Dublin is increased by one
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The official date should be the Saturday night. That would give a truer view of the actual population in the county.

When mine were going thru education I always returned them as being at home on Sunday night. As far as the enumerator or other authorities are concerned, "they got the early bus".

oscarBravo

nuac wrote: »

It was a travesty for South Mayo people to have to vote last Feb in Galway West.

You know that it's not unusual for constituencies to cross county boundaries, right?

MBSnr

^^^
I know what the OP means. As I see it, effectively South Mayo now has no voice and no representation with the reduction from 5 to 4 seats this year. The Mayo TDs seem to only care about Westport/Castlebar/Ballina... Galway West TDs only about Galway city and 'Connemara'.

OK, it's where the most people (and of course the votes) are but take the 'large metropolis' of Cornamona in Galway - it's getting FTTH for 100 houses (which already have 24Mb ADSL2) in less than 12 months time. Funny how Eir choose that place over all other surrounding ADSL1 areas... Nothing to do with Eamon O'Cuiv I bet...

oscarBravo

OK, so we're operating on the assumption that a Galway West TD will be so egregiously stupid as to ignore representations from south Mayo constituents, because GAA or something. I don't understand the basis for that assumption, but let's roll with it.

What's the answer? Should all constituencies be aligned with county boundaries, and to hell with proportional representation, or should an exception be made for Mayo? Should Mayo be a five-seater, and have more TDs per capita than the rest of the country, or a four-seater, and have fewer?

MBSnr

oscarBravo wrote: »

OK, so we're operating on the assumption that a Galway West TD will be so egregiously stupid as to ignore representations from south Mayo constituents, because GAA or something. I don't understand the basis for that assumption, but let's roll with it.

Put it this way, the only TD I saw canvassing in my local area was John O'Mahony FG. I'm not saying that FF didn't appear in South Mayo but the Independents certainly didn't door knock. They all appear to me as Galway centric and all come from Galway city/Moycullen, apart from Eamon, who worked in Cornamona before becoming a TD. Hence my example of Cornamona amazingly getting FTTH soon and my skepticism that they perhaps wouldn't hear South Mayo as loudly as they would Galway city and county.

oscarBravo

MBSnr wrote: »

Put it this way, the only TD I saw canvassing in my local area was John O'Mahony FG. I'm not saying that FF didn't appear in South Mayo but the Independents certainly didn't door knock. They all appear to me as Galway centric and all come from Galway city/Moycullen, apart from Eamon, who worked in Cornamona before becoming a TD. Hence my example of Cornamona amazingly getting FTTH soon and my skepticism that they perhaps wouldn't hear South Mayo as loudly as they would Galway city and county.

OK. What's the answer?

PARlance

nuac wrote: »

It was a travesty for South Mayo people to have to vote last Feb in Galway West.

When rearranging constituencies the last census is relied upon.

The relevant date for the census form is always a Sunday night. That imho gives skewed view of an area's population.. E.g. large numbers from Mayo leave the county for Galway, Dublin etc for work or study.

In each case the popltn of Mayo is shown as reduced by one, whereas Galway or Dublin is increased by one
.
The official date should be the Saturday night. That would give a truer view of the actual population in the county.

When mine were going thru education I always returned them as being at home on Sunday night. As far as the enumerator or other authorities are concerned, "they got the early bus".

Holding it on a Wednesday would give a truer view. You mightn't like the outcome but it gives a better representation if people are recorded in the area that they live / work in for the majority of their time.

nuac

PARlance wrote: »

Holding it on a Wednesday would give a truer view. You mightn't like the outcome but it gives a better representation if people are recorded in the area that they live / work in for the majority of their time.

thanks for that.

My suggestion is that a census taken on Saturday night would give a more accurate picture than one on a Sunday night.

E.g. all the Mayo people who have to leave the county on Sunday afternoon to be at work or study elsewhere. That inflates the population of Galway, Dublin etc., and reduces the Mayo populations. By next census some of those may have emigrated, be working elsewhere in Ireland, or indeed be back in Mayo.

The more shown to be living in Mayo, the better for the county.

So when filling that form, have all the family "home" on Sunday night.

nuac

oscarBravo wrote: »

OK, so we're operating on the assumption that a Galway West TD will be so egregiously stupid as to ignore representations from south Mayo constituents, because GAA or something. I don't understand the basis for that assumption, but let's roll with it.

What's the answer? Should all constituencies be aligned with county boundaries, and to hell with proportional representation, or should an exception be made for Mayo? Should Mayo be a five-seater, and have more TDs per capita than the rest of the country, or a four-seater, and have fewer?

I think county boundaries should be respected as far as possible, because of the overlap between county council and Oireachtas matters.

imho it would be better to lose one of our complement of Mayo TDs than lose f large chunk of Mayo territory and voters to Galway

oscarBravo

nuac wrote: »

I think county boundaries should be respected as far as possible, because of the overlap between county council and Oireachtas matters.

I think it would be better if the Oireachtas wasn't a County Council writ large. The idea that a Galway West TD won't represent the interests of a South Mayo voter - whether or not it's even true - is a perfect encapsulation of almost everything that's politically wrong with this country.

imho it would be better to lose one of our complement of Mayo TDs than lose f large chunk of Mayo territory and voters to Galway

We did lose a Mayo TD. We also lost some territory and voters in order to maintain approximate proportionality of representation.

If your argument is that it's more important that Ballinrobe people should be represented by someone from the Mayo constituency, even at the expense of having proportionally fewer TDs per capita than the rest of the country, fair enough. I simply can't get my head around the idea that a Mayo TD will do more for a voter than a Galway TD will.

nuac

oscarBravo wrote: »

I think it would be better if the Oireachtas wasn't a County Council writ large. The idea that a Galway West TD won't represent the interests of a South Mayo voter - whether or not it's even true - is a perfect encapsulation of almost everything that's politically wrong with this country. We did lose a Mayo TD. We also lost some territory and voters in order to maintain approximate proportionality of representation.

If your argument is that it's more important that Ballinrobe people should be represented by someone from the Mayo constituency, even at the expense of having proportionally fewer TDs per capita than the rest of the country, fair enough. I simply can't get my head around the idea that a Mayo TD will do more for a voter than a Galway TD will.

We are back to Tipp O'Neill - all politics are local.

In GE16 voters in the Ballinrobe area were being canvassed by new faces from far away. Many were unhappy about that.

As long as we have multiseat constituencies there will be competition for votes. I have only known very few politicians who survived without attending to constituents requests

oscarBravo

nuac wrote: »

We are back to Tipp O'Neill - all politics are local.

That depends heavily on how well the political system works - which in turn depends on who it's designed to work for. It's hard to escape the conclusion that, in Ireland, it's designed to work for the politicians.

In Denmark, local government has real power, including the power to levy taxes. It would quite simply never cross a Dane's mind to contact a member of parliament about a local issue, because that's what local government is for. Members of parliament have their own job: running the country.

In GE16 voters in the Ballinrobe area were being canvassed by new faces from far away. Many were unhappy about that.

It sounds like those disinterested Galway politicians took an interest in them after all.

As long as we have multiseat constituencies there will be competition for votes. I have only known very few politicians who survived without attending to constituents requests

I don't disagree. My problem is with the idea that this somehow stops being the case when the politician lives across an arbitrary border.

Think about it: John O'Mahony lives in Roscommon.