The Government has announced the establishment of a Boundary Review Commission to review the Dáil and European Parliament constituencies, following the publication of the latest Census.
However, the timing will mean that candidates for the European elections in June 2004 will face major problems since they will not know their constituency boundaries until the end of the year.
The Commission will be headed by Mr Justice Vivian Lavan, who was nominated by the Chief Justice, Mr Ronan Keane, following consultation with the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan.
The Commission's other members will be the Ombudsman, Ms Emily O'Reilly; the Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Mr Niall Callan; the Clerk of the Dáil, Mr Kieran Coughlan; and the Clerk of the Seanad, Ms Deirdre Lane.
It will have to make major changes to existing European Parliament boundaries because Ireland's number of MEPs will drop by two, to 13, under the terms of the Treaty of Nice.
The drop could force the Commission to cut the number of MEPs from Munster by one, to transfer Clare into the Connacht/Ulster constituency, and/or to add Meath to the Dublin constituency.
Labour TD Mr Eamon Gilmore said the Commission should produce its European Parliament boundaries first because the proposed timetable means that they may not be known until early in the New Year.
"By the time the required legislation would be passed, it could then be as late as February or March. This is totally unfair to potential candidates and does not do justice to their importance," he declared.
Last night, the government spokesperson said that the Commission would deal with the European issue before turning its attention to reviewing the existing Dáil constituencies.
Fine Gael Munster MEP Mr John Cushnahan suggested that the Commission should consider setting up one national list for the European Parliament elections, since Ireland will drop another seat after Bulgaria and Romania join in 2007.
