Almost everyone who was out and about and working in the shops, restaurants and petrol stations dotted throughout the small but very well-heeled south Dublin village of Foxrock on Wednesday afternoon were entirely oblivious to their impending move from one leafy constituency to another almost as leafy one.
Following the Electoral Commission’s highly anticipated constituency review, Foxrock, alongside the neighbouring suburbs of Leopardstown and Glencullen, will leave Dún Laoghaire behind and become part of the Dublin Rathdown constituency instead.
The move will see Dublin Rathdown’s three sitting TDs – Fine Gael’s Neale Richmond and Josepha Madigan, and Green Catherine Martin – joined by a fourth TD after the next election, assuming of course that they retain their seats.
Thomas Murphy was in his high-end food and wine shop at one end of the village chatting to customers about this and that when The Irish Times told him of the change coming down the tracks.
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While he had been aware of the decision from the commission to increase the number of TDs from 160 to 174 he had not heard it had also decided to move him and his fellow voters to a completely different constituency.
He initially expressed surprise, quickly followed by a degree of annoyance which could best be described as mild.
“It is a big deal really,” he said pointing to the positive bond he has had over four decades in business with his local TDs of all persuasions from centre right to centre left.
“I am surprised to hear that we have been moved. What’s the benefit of it? We have a relationship with our TDs already and we will have to start that all over again.”
The constituency shake-up was news to Elisabeth Guinness of the Guinness Gallery too. “I’m only just hearing about, it,” she said. “I think if we are being moved from one constituency to another, it would have been nice if there was a meeting with us before any decision was made.”
She was, however, sanguine about the consequences of the move. “I do know that we have had a pretty good relationship with our TDs over a long period of time and we will have to build new ones now but we will and time will tell if it makes any difference.”
Local resident Shelia Moore and member of Foxrock Area Community & Enterprise Company adopted a glass half full attitude to the move which, she noted, would give the area an additional TD.
“I don’t see a difficulty in the boundary move myself,” she said. “I was surprised by it but I am pleased that there’s an extra TD for the whole area. We have been very, very lucky with our representatives but this does seem positive and I have no problem with it. It is up to us to build the relationships and we will do that.”
