Electoral Commission (Ireland)

The Electoral Commission () in Ireland, is an election commission that is due to be established by order of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to oversee the conduct of all elections in the state under the Electoral Reform Act 2022. The commission will assume a range of responsibilities currently distributed among various government departments, statutory agencies and components of the Oireachtas (parliament). A proposal on 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 heads of bill in 2021.

Membership

The Commission is to consist of between 7 and 9 members, being:
* the chairperson, being a current or former judge of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal or High Court;
* 2 members, being the Ombudsman and the Clerk of Dáil Éireann;
* 4 to 6 ordinary members.

The ordinary members chosen to take office upon its establishment are:
* John Curran, former Minister of State (4-year term);
* Maura Quinn (4-year term);
* Alex Attwood, former MLA, member of the UK Electoral Commission (3-year term);
* Prof. Caroline Fennell, member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (4-year term).

Electoral Reform Act 2022

The Electoral Reform Act 2022 was enacted on 25 July 2022. The functions of the forthcoming electoral commission are set out in its long title:

History

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.

After the 2016 general election, a minority coalition government was formed by Fine Gael and Independent TDs with confidence and supply support from Fianna Fáil. Its programme committed to establishing an electoral commission "independent of Government and directly accountable to the Oireachtas". The government's September 2016 list of planned legislation includes the Electoral Commission Bill in the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government's "medium and long term" plans. In June 2017, the department was preparing a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA). In October 2017, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there was "no timeframe" for establishing the commission and it was "very much a long-term project". In September 2018 John Paul Phelan, Minister of State for Local Government and Electoral Reform, gave an update to the Seanad. He said a priority was "modernisation" of the electoral register, which different local authorities had been maintaining in divergent manners; this would take "two to three years", involve "significant public consultation", and proceed separately from work on an Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission RIA published in November 2018 compared four implementation strategies. The ensuing public consultation received 23 submissions by the closing date of 15 March 2019. In July 2019 Phelan said work was commencing on drafting the general scheme (outline) of an Electoral Commission Bill.

2021 draft bill

Negotiations after the February 2020 general election led to the formation in June of a Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Green coalition, whose programme for government promised an electoral commission by the end of 2021. Malcolm Noonan was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage produced the general scheme of an Electoral Reform Bill, which was approved by the cabinet on 30 December 2020 and published on 8 January 2021. The scheme was submitted for pre-legislative scrutiny to an Oireachtas Joint Committee, which had public meetings with invited parties between 23 January and 22 June and issued its report in August.

The draft bill, which may be amended by before its initiation in the Oireachtas by the minister, seeks both to modernise the electoral register and to establish an electoral commission with seven to nine members and a permanent staff. The establishment provisions are modelled on the Policing Authority established in 2015.

The commission would comprise:
* five to seven members appointed by the President of Ireland:
** the Chairperson, a current or former judge of the superior courts, nominated by the Chief Justice, appointed for a seven-year term;
** four to six experts recommended by the Commission for Public Service Appointments and nominated by the government with Oireachtas approval for a four-year term
* two members:
** the Ombudsman
** the Clerk of Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann, alternating every four years;

The commission's staff would be members of the Civil Service of the State, with a Chief Executive recommended by the Commission for Public Service Appointments.

Envisaged functions

The Constitutional Convention took the Australian Electoral Commission and UK Electoral Commission as case studies of possible models for the Irish body. The various official reports listed functions which might be performed by the commission, and noted who is currently responsible for them. The bill published in 2021 would give some of these as "initial functions" to the commission it establishes, leaving open the possibility for others to be transferred to it at a later date.DHLGH 2021 Head 28 p.57–59/ref> Academics addressing a pre-legislative scrutiny meeting said the bill lacked ambition and the commission's structure left it "little room for expansion" to new activities.

;Notes:

Interim organisation

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 Electoral Reform Bill 2022 was published and introduced to the Dáil on 30 March 2022. Its second reading was on 5–7 April, whereupon it was referred to the Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for committee stage, held on 31 May and 1 June. The bill completed remaining Dáil stages on 15 June, and Seanad stages on 21 and 30 June and 6 and 7 July. The Dáil accepted the Seanad amendments on 13 July, and the bill was signed into law by the President on 25 July.

The 2023 budget earmarks €5.7m for the commission and a further €2.77m to enable local authorities to modernise the electoral register.

References

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* CHLGHOireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, ''General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020: Discussion'' (2021
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Citations

External links

Citizens Information Board

Public Consultation on an Electoral Commission in Ireland
(2015–2016) Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

topic Electoral Commission
Government of Ireland website

{{Constituency Law Ireland

Ireland
Elections in the Republic of Ireland
2015 in the Republic of Ireland
Electoral reform in the Republic of Ireland
2022 in the Republic of Ireland
2022 establishments in Ireland