They do not meet the constitutional requirement that the ratio of population to Dail members is as equal as possible But, as we predicted last week, there is a real disinclination among both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to radically redraw the constituency boundaries so close to a general election.

Still, it is welcome, if unexpected, that the government has decided to get the attorney general's legal opinion on whether boundaries should be revamped now, or when the final census statistics are published next April . . . too late to affect a possible May election. This will at least mean that we have a second opinion and don't just rely on the constitutional interpretation of the Department of the Environment. That department must concentrate all its efforts on helping local authorities update our hopelessly inaccurate electoral register.

In one sense boundary changes are the easy part of our response to our dramatically changing population. The outstanding statistic is that one in 10 of us is now a foreign national. Most are, of course, ineligible to vote . . . whatever the boundary of the constituency they live in. Which makes it all the more important that we move faster to create a more inclusive nation in order that the 400,000 Polish, Lithuanian, Nigerian or Filipino people who live here can play their full part.

The infrastructure of an expanding population isn't just about the bricks and mortar of bridges, roads and railways that we so patently need. Just as importantly, it's the bricks and mortar of our legislation, culture, customs and practices which also need to expand and change.

Muslims will need to build mosques . . . as they are finding it so hard to do in Tralee . . . while schools with large numbers of pupils from certain countries will need teachers who speak the languages the children will understand.

We need a national debate about whether we embrace a multicultural future in which all traditions are respected in the style of Britain, or an integrated, secular French-style future which lays out rules of equality and fraternity which every tradition must follow.

A large foreign population is here to stay. It is vital that, during times of economic boom, we lay the foundations that will buffer us against the social divisions that are inevitable during times of economic contraction.