Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009
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| Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Oireachtas | |
| |
| Citation | No. 4 of 2009 |
| Signed | 24 February 2009 |
| Commenced | 24 February 2009 & 1 February 2011 |
| Legislative history | |
| Bill citation | No. 38 of 2008 |
| Introduced by | Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (John Gormley) |
| Introduced | 27 June 2008 |
| Amends | |
| Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005 | |
| Amended by | |
| Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2013 | |
The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009 (No. 4) is a law of Ireland which amended electoral law, including revisions to Dáil constituencies and European Parliament constituencies in light of the 2006 census.[1] The new European Parliament constituencies were used at the election in June 2009. The revision to Dáil constituencies took effect on the dissolution of the 30th Dáil on 1 February 2011 and a general election for the 31st Dáil on the revised constituencies took place on 25 February 2011.
In April 2007, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government established an independent Constituency Commission under the terms of the Electoral Act 1997.[2] Its report proposed several changes to Dáil constituencies. The commission was chaired by Iarfhlaith O'Neill, judge of the High Court, and delivered its report later in 2007.[3]
The Act implemented the recommendations of this report and repealed the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1998, which had defined constituencies since the 2007 general election.[4] The size of the Dáil remained at 166, arranged in 43 constituencies.
The Dáil constituencies in this Act were repealed by the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2013, which created a new schedule of constituencies first used at the 2016 general election for the 32nd Dáil held on 26 February 2016.[5]
Electoral law amendments
The Act amended the provisions of the Electoral Act 1997 on the establishment of the Constituency Commission to provide that it would be established on the release of preliminary results of the census.[6] This was in response to finding of the High Court in Murphy v. Minister for Environment (2007).[7] It also amended the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 and the Local Elections Regulations to amend the provisions for the nomination of Independent candidates. This was in response to the finding of the Supreme Court in Cooney v. Minister for the Environment (2006).[8][9]