An independent review of the European Parliament constituency boundaries should be put on hold until a decision is made on the number of MEPs that Ireland will have after 2009.
Under the Nice Treaty, Ireland is destined to lose one of its existing 13 places in the 2009 election, which is likely to mean that Dublin will be the one to drop a seat or else face major constituency redrawing.
Following a meeting in Strasbourg yesterday, Fine Gael's five MEPs decided to write to Minister for the Environment John Gormley to ask him to urge the Constituency Commission to delay its findings.
The commission is currently examining both Dáil and European Parliament constituency boundaries, and is due to issue its Dáil findings in October and its decisions on the European Parliament in November.
However, EU leaders in June decided that the number of MEPs, which was set at 732 under the Nice Treaty, should be allowed to rise to 750, partly because of the scale of the enlargement that has occurred.
The reform treaty could be signed as early as mid-October if some more optimistic predictions from Brussels are to be believed, which would then have to be ratified by all member states before the 2009 election.
Privately, Fianna Fáil MEPs appear to believe that there is little to be gained from asking Mr Gormley to intervene now, and they doubt if this is even legally possible in the first place.
In a submission to the Constituency Commission, Fine Gael said that Ireland "has a compelling case" to hold on to its 13 seats, partly because of the 400,000 extra people now living in the country.
Spain has made a strong case for an increase in its numbers of MEPs. This will spur similar demands from Poland, which has the same number of votes at EU meetings, but with a declining population.
Malta, which currently has five MEPs, will get one extra under June's EU leaders' agreement, while Ireland will have the same number of seats as Lithuania, even though its population is 600,000 higher.
If the number is cut to 12, Fine Gael proposes that Longford-Westmeath, with a population of 106,211, should be transferred from the East constituency into the North West.
This would give the latter an average population per-member of 327,722, thus leaving it with three seats.
None of the existing Dáil constituencies included in the East Constituency, whose population has increased by 12.7 per cent, compared with 5.7 per cent in Dublin, should be removed.
"Should the commission feel that change is warranted, then we suggest that one of the ribbon constituencies around Dublin be transferred to the Dublin Constituency from East Constituency."
The Fine Gael submission, drafted by the party's general secretary, Tom Curran, continues: "Dublin as a constituency without any reconfiguration would have an average population of 395,725 per member.
"This in our view is too high, and we would recommend that Dublin North, population 120,309, would move to East Constituency.
"Dublin North is the only Dublin constituency that has a large rural hinterland and this differentiates it from the remaining constituencies within Dublin."
