Kelly calls for Europe to expand Dublin constituency

Fine Gael MEP, Sean Kelly, is recommending that the Dublin constituency for the European Parliament elections should be expanded to a five-seater.

At the moment there are four European constituencies in Ireland and Dublin is a three-seat constituency.

The number of MEP seats in Ireland will decrease from 12 to 11 in next year’s European Parliament elections.

The constituency commission is currently reviewing the European electoral boundaries in Ireland and is due to make a decision on the new constituencies by the end of the month.

Mr Kelly said that it would not be right to create two large four-seat constituencies for the South and North regions, saying it would be unmanageable for MEP's in those areas.

He said: "Personally I think it is Dublin should be enlarged because from a travelling point of view, a geographic point of view and a population density point of view, it would be much smaller."