North central which was significantly below the national average in terms of numbers of voters per TD at the last election will gain around 4,000 voters each from both the Cork East and Cork North West constituencies which were slightly overrepresented at the last election. The changes will see a decided shift in the overall character of Cork North Central from a predominantly urban constituency to one dominated by suburban and rural.

As well as the northside of the city, North Central’s four TDs will now also represent 4,255 voters currently in Cork East and 4,334 currently in Cork North West. North Central will gain Dromore, Kilcullen, Kilshannig and Mountrivers from North West and Ballynaglogh, Ballynamona, Carrig, Glenville, Kildinan, Rahan, and Watergrasshill from Cork East.

In total Cork retains its current number of 19 seats which equates to 25,311 people per TD, just below the national average.

The changes were welcomed by Cork Senator Dan Boyle who said, “I believe that the recommendations for the Cork region in today’s report to be fair and reasonable. I look forward to having the opportunity at a future general election of asking largely the same group of people living within the same electoral boundaries if I could be one of the representatives for Cork South”.

Despite the welcome for proposed changes by Senator Boyle sitting city-based TDs in Cork North Central Noel O’Flynn (FF) and Bernard Allen (FG) both suggested that including part of Cork South Central would have been a more appropriate option, while county-based Fine Gael candidate at the last election, Cllr Gerry Kelly (FG) welcomed the move saying he believed their would be an additional seat avaialble for Fine Gael in the re-drawn four-seater.

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