The next European elections will take place between May 23rd and 26th next year. The date was decided by a vote of the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs on Monday evening.
The dates will be further confirmed by a plenary vote on Wednesday.
The elections will see Ireland gain two more seats with its representation of MEPs rising from 11 to 13 arising from the decision of the UK to leave the European Union.
Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness, the first vice-president of the parliament, called on the Government to look at Ireland’s electoral boundaries to accommodate the new seats.
“This arises from the decision of the UK to leave the EU, which means that no UK representatives will be elected to the European Parliament next year. In fact, UK members will leave the parliament on March 30th, 2019,” she said.
There are three European constituencies in the State: Dublin, which has three seats; Midlands North West, which has four seats; and South, which also has four seats.
Ms McGuinness said there were several possibilities for new constituency boundaries. She said the work needed to be carried out by the Constituency Commission, which needs to be mandated to redraw boundaries.
“Given the additional two seats, there will have to be boundary changes and it would be important that these new boundaries are drawn as soon as is practical,” she said.
