So what have Westmeath and Donegal got in common?

It would be interesting to carry out a poll to see what percentage of the people set to vote in the elections, could name the full line-up of candidates running in 'this' constituency for the European posts.Indeed, it might be interesting to ask people can they name the constituency in which Westmeath finds itself for this election.And indeed, what might also be interesting would be to record their reactions as they learn that they are in Ireland"s 'North West' constituency - along with Donegal, Sligo, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Clare, Cavan, Longford and Monaghan.So while Dublin is just 35 miles up the road from Westmeath"s eastern boundaries; while vast numbers of people from this catchment area travel daily to Dublin to work; while this county looks eastward, thinks eastward, even plays its football, 'eastward', or at least 'south', so to speak, for the purpose of this election we are deemed to share the same needs, interests and requirements as people in Clare - several hours" drive away - or Donegal, which is even further.Of the thirteen candidates running for the three available seats, only one is within an hour"s drive of Mullingar - Fine Gael"s Joe O"Reilly. The majority are right up in the Sligo/Donegal area, and our next nearest candidate in terms of geography is the Libertas leader, Declan Ganly.Few in this area could recognise any of the candidates, except perhaps Declan Ganly, although the name of Susan O"Keeffe, the former journalist running for Labour, would probably ring a bell with a lot of people.With twelve European seats up for grabs, surely the country could have been divided up into a more logical fashion. The precedents are there. Even if we voted by province, and allocated the seats on a per-head of population basis, it would make more sense than the current set-up. For the candidates themselves, it must be nightmare territory. How is a Donegal-based candidate, or a Sligo-based candidate to carry out any sort of effective canvass in a place like Kinnegad? How is he or she to get their message across in Killucan? Collinstown? Mullingar?There will be voters from this county who will receive their European ballot paper on June 5, and promptly shred it, because they won"t know a face nor a name from the list of those running.It"s been a long time since Westmeath had direct representation in Europe: the only MEP Westmeath has ever had was Paddy Cooney - and it"s twenty years ago since he was elected.The inclusion of Westmeath in this ridiculous North West constituency is as ridiculous as the revival, for the last general election, of the old Longford Westmeath constituency - which has left Westmeath (population 79,346) with just two TDs, while Longford, whose population is less than half of that (34,391) also has TDs. That"s not to mention the unfortunate denizens of parts of east Westmeath, who have to rely on crumbs from the Meath political table, since that"s the constituency in which they currently find themselves. Westmeath is under-represented at national level - and it"s now set to be under-represented at European level. You can shout: but there"s no-one of influence locally to listen.