Electoral Commission recommends division of county Tipperary into two Dáil constituencies again

The Electoral Commission has recommended that Tipperary revert to two three-seater constituencies of North and South Tipperary in the next general election.

The Electoral Commission has made this recommendation in its review of Dáil constituencies published this morning (Tuesday, August 30). The Constituency Review 2023 has been submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas. 

The Review recommends that some parts of county Kilkenny, currently in the Carlow/Kilkenny constituency transfer to a new Tipperary North constituency. 

Nationwide, the Review has recommended that the number of TDs for the next Dáil be increased by 14 to 174, up from 160 TD in the current Dáil. It has also recommended that the number of Dáil constituencies increase from 39 to 43.

Tipperary has been a single five-seater Dáil constituency since 2016. Prior to that the county was divided into two North and South constituencies. The unification of the county into a single Dáil constituency followed the amalgamation of South and North Tipperary County Council's in 2014 under radical local government reforms. 

The changes in many constituencies around the country is necessary to take account of an 8% increase in the country's population since 2016. There are now more than 5.15 million people living in Ireland.

Under the Constitution, Ireland should have one TD per 20,000-30,000 people. These changes mean each TD will represent an average of 29,593 people.