Donegal remains unchanged in Constituency Review Report 2023

The report, published on Wednesday morning, names Donegal as one of seven constituencies to stay the same and it would remain a five-seater constituency, with nine electoral districts remaining in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency.

The report stated: “The Donegal constituency has a population of 157,700 (an increase of 4.67%). The constituency

currently comprises the county of Donegal, except for nine EDs in the south of the county, with a population of 9,384. These nine EDs are located in

the Sligo-Leitrim constituency.

“The main consideration by the Commission regarding the Donegal constituency was the removal of the breach in the southern part of the county. This issue was raised in many submissions relating to this constituency. Some submissions suggested retaining Donegal as a 5 seat

constituency, although more suggested creating two 3 seat constituencies.

“The Commission considered the removal of the county boundary breach by transferring the nine Co. Donegal EDs, currently in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency into the Donegal 5 seat constituency.

“However, the Commission concluded that this was not possible, as adding this population would have resulted in an unacceptably high variance of 12.92%.

“The Commission also considered the possibility of creating two 3 seat constituencies in Co. Donegal, as a way of removing the existing county boundary

breach. However, such a transfer would have precluded the removal of the county boundary breach in northern Co. Roscommon, the reduction

in the county boundary breach in the eastern part of Co. Galway and the removal of the breach of the Mayo county boundary.

“The Commission also considered extending the breach by transferring four EDs with a population of 1,356 into the Sligo-Leitrim constituency. This would

have allowed for better variances in the Donegal and Sligo-Leitrim constituencies. However, the Commission decided against this approach as it

favoured maintaining continuity, and did not want to extend the breach unnecessarily.

“A key factor is that Co. Donegal is only contiguous with one other county – Leitrim. This tended

to constrain the possible options open to the Commission.”

It is also recommended that the number of TDs in increase to 174, up from 160.