BY CATRIONA GALLEN

PROPOSALS to change the electoral boundaries will radically alter the political map of Donegal.

The Milford electoral area will be subsumed within the Letterkenny boundary, Glenties and Donegal will each lose a councillor while Stranorlar will gain two.

The changes will also mean that Letterkenny gains two councillors and Inishowen one.

The re-drawing of electoral boundaries is part of a series of recommendations made by a national review body which has found that electoral areas like Donegal and Glenties are over-represented while Inishowen and Milford are under-represented.

At present there are two Dáil constituencies in Donegal; Donegal North East and Donegal South West. There are six councillors representing the Donegal Town area, six councillors representing the Glenties area and three councillors representing the Stranorlar electoral area, making a total of 15 councillors representing Donegal South West.

In Donegal North East, Inishowen has six elected representatives, Letterkenny has five and Milford has three, making a total of 14 councillors sitting on Donegal County Council. There are a total of 29 councillors on the Council.

The redistribution of council seats among the electoral areas will be as follows; Donegal, five seats; Glenties, five seats; Inishowen, seven seats; Letterkenny, seven seats; Stranorlar, five seats. It means Donegal North East constituency is made up of two seven seat areas, Letterkenny and Inishowen and Donegal South West is divided into three five-seat areas. The boundaries have been redrawn to provide a sufficient population base in order to reach the vote quota.

To accommodate the considerations and rebalance the population per member within County Donegal the committee recommended a number of electoral divisions be transferred into different electoral areas.

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