Census figures could force constituency changes

THE Government is seeking advice from the Attorney General after yesterday’s preliminary census figures indicated potential legal problems with the constituencies for next year’s election.

Under the Constitution, there must be at least one TD for every 30,000 of the population.

But after recording a phenomenal surge of 26.8% in population since 2002 — from 73,186 to 92,800 — the Dublin West constituency now has 30,993 persons to each of its three TDs.