Electoral Commission (Ireland)

An independent electoral commission is planned by the current Irish government to oversee the conduct of all elections in the state. This responsibility is at present distributed among various government departments, statutory agencies and components of the Oireachtas (parliament).

History

In 2008, the then 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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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),^[3] which was also endorsed the government.^[4] Alan Kelly, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, outlined progress of the plan in Seanad Éireann (upper house of the Oireachtas) in December 2014,^[5][6] The government published a consultation paper in January 2015, and said it intended to introduce a bill in the Oireachtas in 2015.^[7] 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.^[8] In April 2015 the committee invited submissions on the government's consultation paper from interest groups,^[9] and held hearings with them in June and July.^[10] The committee's report was launched on 14 January 2016.^[11]

Possible functions

The Australian Electoral Commission and UK Electoral Commission have been taken as case studies of possible models for the Irish body.^[12] The 2015 consultation paper suggests the new commission might subsume several existing bodies, including some or all of the Referendum Commission, the Constituency Commission (for Dáil and European Parliament constituency boundaries) and the Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee. It might also take responsibility for electoral functions from other bodies:^[13]

• maintaining the electoral register (currently done by local authorities and the Franchise Section of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government)
• acting as returning officer (done by local authorities)
• campaign financing monitoring (done by the Standards in Public Office Commission)
• the register of political parties (maintained by the clerk of the Dáil)
• elections to the Seanad: currently, Vocational Panel elections are overseen by the clerk of the Seanad. The working group established after the defeat of the 2013 Seanad abolition referendum reported in 2015 on proposed reforms, which included radical changes in the Seanad electoral system and the creation of a "Seanad Electoral Commission" to oversee this.^[14][15] The working group's report recognised that the Electoral Commission already proposed by the government would, if established, obviate the need for a separate Seanad Electoral Commission.^[14]

References

• "Consultation Paper on the Establishment of an Electoral Commission in Ireland" (PDF). Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG). 27 January 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2015. 
• "Fourth Report: Dáil Electoral System" (PDF). Constitutional Convention. August 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2015. 
• Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht (13 January 2016). "Report of the Joint Committee on the Consultation on the Proposed Electoral Commission 2016" (PDF). Retrieved 14 January 2016. 

Citations

External links

• Public Consultation on an Electoral Commission in Ireland Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht