Proposal to turn Galway City into its own constituency

Submissions have been made to transform an enlarged Galway City into a three-seat constituency of its own – with a decision to be made during the course of 2017.

A commission has been appointed to review all of the constituency boundaries and submissions in this regard are being invited from the public.

There are already two submissions suggesting that Galway City have its own constituency rather than being part of a five-seater Galway West which also includes a chunk of Mayo.

If this were to happen then the Galway City constituency would have to include the likes of Oranmore and Claregalway, and possibly Barna, to give it the sufficient population to make it a three-seater.

As it stands the population per TD is 30,000 and as Galway City has a population of just under 80,000, a further 10,000 would be required to make it into a three-seat constituency.

It would mean that the remainder of the county including Connemara and Galway East would then be combined into a five-seater.

According to one of the submissions it is now time to “correct” the constituency of Galway West and South Mayo into both an urban and rural constituency. It states that Galway requires its own constituency for the city and its urban citizens.

It makes the argument that Limerick City, with a significantly smaller population than Galway City, has its own urban constituency. It is stated that Galway West has two distinct urban and rural populations.

In another submission, it is stated: Galway has a combined population of over a quarter of a million people and Galway West is lumped in some confused boundary with Mayo.

“It makes no sense that we don’t have a city boundary with city politicians looking after it”, the submission adds. The public have until January 10 to make further submissions.

There is also a submission to the new commission to restore the Mayo boundary and remove that part of the south of the county from the Galway West constituency.