The Electoral Commission () is an election commission with responsibility for the oversight of all elections in Ireland, including electoral operations, constituency reviews and electoral integrity. It was established in 2023. Prior to its establishment, some of these functions had been carried out by various government departments, local government officials, statutory agencies and components of the Oireachtas and in the case of Boundaries by a judge led commission, while other functions are novel to the new Commission.
A proposal for an electoral commission was first considered in a government report commissioned in 2008, and was developed by a series of governments since then, before the publication of the heads of a bill in 2021.
Organisation
The Electoral Commission was established on 9 February 2023 under the Electoral Reform Act 2022 by order of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien.
In March 2021 it was announced that Art O'Leary, upon completion in June 2021 of his seven-year term as Secretary General to the President, would be appointed to work on the preparatory institutional and administrative arrangements for the commission, pending its formal establishment.
The 2023 budget earmarks €5.7m for the commission and a further €2.77m to enable local authorities to modernise the electoral register.
Membership
The Commission may consist of between 7 and 9 members: a chair appointed from the judiciary, two members, and four to six ordinary members.
Functions
The functions of the Commission are defined by the Electoral Reform Act 2022.
Electoral operations
Referendum campaigns
Constituency and electoral boundary reviews
Registration of political parties
Oversight of the electoral register
Electoral integrity
Regulation of online electoral information (This part of the Electoral Reform Act 2022 (Part 5) has not yet been commenced) Regulation of online advertising during election periods (This part of the Electoral Reform Act 2022 (Part 4) has not yet been commenced) Post electoral event reviews Advice
Reports
On 30 August 2023, it published a review of Dáil constituency boundaries, in which it recommended an increase in the size of the Dáil from 160 to 174 TDs, to be elected in 43 constituencies. It included the establishment of new constituencies: Dublin Fingal East Dublin Fingal West Wicklow–Wexford and the re-establishment of historic constituencies: Laois Offaly Tipperary North Tipperary South
Background
An electoral commission was recommended by several official reports, including the Second Report (2006) of the Commission on Electronic Voting. Private member's bills to establish an electoral commission were introduced by Ciarán Lynch in 2008 and 2012.
In 2008, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government commissioned and published a study on introducing an electoral commission, carried out by academics from University College Dublin. After the 2011 general election, the Fine Gael and Labour parties formed a coalition government whose programme included a commitment to establish an electoral commission. Such a commission was also recommended in the Constitutional Convention's 2013 report on the system of elections to Dáil Éireann (lower house of the Oireachtas), which was also endorsed the government. Alan Kelly, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, outlined progress of the plan in Seanad Éireann in December 2014, The government published a consultation paper in January 2015, and said it intended to introduce a bill in the Oireachtas in 2015. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht discussed the plan with Alan Kelly on 10 March 2015. Kelly stated that drafting the enabling bill would begin when the committee had consulted and reported back to him, that he expected the bill to be enacted by the end of 2015, that the commission would not be established before the next general election, and that functions should be assigned to it on a phased basis. In April 2015 the committee invited submissions on the government's consultation paper from interest groups, and held hearings with them in June and July. The committee's report was launched on 14 January 2016.