The Green Party wants the Constituency Commission to make significant boundary changes across the State but it is proposing minimal changes in all six constituencies where it holds a seat, according to a submission lodged with the commission last week.
In contrast to its proposals in constituencies where it has a TD, the Greens are proposing extensive changes in constituencies along the west coast, in the midlands and on the northside of Dublin.
Green Party leader John Gormley is Minister for the Environment and his department will have a crucial role in determining the basis on which the Constituency Commission conducts the task of redrawing the current 43 Dáil constituencies.
The commission received a total of 173 submissions from political parties, individual politicians and interested citizens before last Tuesday's deadline. It is expected to report in October.
The Green Party proposes that the two three-seat constituencies in Kerry should be amalgamated into one five-seater and that the same should happen in Donegal.
On the southside of Dublin, which is currently over-represented in Dáil Éireann, the Greens propose that Dublin South West should lose a seat. It suggests that Dún Laoghaire, where Ciarán Cuffe is a TD, should remain a five-seater with the addition of part of Dublin South.
In turn Dublin South, where Eamon Ryan is a TD, would also remain a five-seater by acquiring a chunk of Dublin South West. Trevor Sargent's Dublin North would get an extra seat under the plan and there would be no change to Mr Gormley's own constituency of Dublin South East, Paul Gogarty's Mid West or Mary White's Carlow Kilkenny.
Big changes are proposed for the northside of Dublin, including an extra seat in Dublin West and the amalgamation of North East and North Central into a five-seater. No significant change is proposed for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's four-seat Dublin Central.
The Progressive Democrats in a 52-page submission also suggest the creation of a new five-seat constituency on the northside of Dublin called Dublin East, as well as the addition of a seat to Dublin West and Dublin North to take account of the big expansion of population in those areas.
Unlike the Greens, the party accepts the need for a reduction in the number of seats in the Dún Laoghaire-Dublin South region. The PDs propose that Dún Laoghaire should lose one in the shake-up.
The Labour Party does not make suggestions about specific constituency changes but makes a strong argument for the maximum possible number of five-seat constituencies to ensure that the election result is as proportional as possible.
"The function of the commission is not only to protect the integrity of the system by ensuring proportionality as between TDs and population, but also to ensure that the number and location of constituencies returning different numbers of members does not interfere with the outcome of an election by accentuating a trend," says the party.
"Clearly, a single 166 seat constituency is out of the question. But, all other things being equal, a Dáil made up of 33 five-seat constituencies would be preferable to one made up of 55 three-seaters. The first of those two options would more accurately and therefore more effectively represent the voting intentions of the electorate. It would do better what PR/STV was devised to do."
Sinn Féin also makes a plea for five-seat constituencies and says it would favour the even larger seven- eight-, or nine-seaters that existed during the first decade of the State's existence. The party proposes extensive boundary changes to bring a number of five-seat constituencies on the northside of Dublin. It also proposes a five-seater for Louth.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did not make official submissions but individual TDs and units of both organisations did over particular constituencies. About one third of all the submissions received came from politicians, organisations and individuals in Co Leitrim advocating that the county should be brought back together as a unit in whatever configuration the commission recommended.
