Sligo Leitrim constituency to lose Cavan but gain part of Roscommon

There will now be 13 five-seater constituencies, 17 four-seaters and nine three-seaters.

Under the changes more than 9,450 people from Laois and 2,404 from Offaly will be represented by Kildare politicians as Portarlington and its hinterlands are subsumed into the Kildare South constituency.

At least one of the six TDs across the two constituencies of Laois and Offaly will lose out at the next election as those constituencies are to merge into a single five-seater one.

Parts of Meath East and Sligo-Leitrim will be transferred to the Cavan-Monaghan constituency.

The report stated, "The counties of Cavan and Monaghan, with some population from the constituency of Meath East, should form the Cavan-Monaghan constituency which should become a 5 seat constituency".

Longford Westmeath and Meath West are unchanged while the overall number of TDs nationally is set to rise from 158 to 160.

It has also proposed a number of changes to constituencies across the country, cutting the total number in the country to 39 (from 40).

Mayo, with some additional population from Galway West, should remain a four-seat constituency. There will be some redrawing of the boundaries between Dublin Rathdown (three-seat) and Dún Laoghaire (four-seat), and between Dublin North-West (three-seat) and Dublin Bay North (five-seat).

Kildare South will comprise the rest of the county - including the return of Monasterevin, Churchtown, Ballybracken, Harristown, Kilberry and Kildangan, who voted in Laois last time out.

There will be no change to the five Cork constituencies.

The commission's report was released late on Tuesday night on the Department of Housing website.

However in its report it points to the increase in population, which now stands at nearly 4,762,000 and is close to the constitutional limit of 30,000 per population per Dáil member.