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).
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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. 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 (upper house of the Oireachtas) 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 independents with confidence and supply support from Fianna Fáil. Its programme commits to establishing an electoral commission "independent of Government and directly accountable to the Oireachtas". In July 2016, Simon Coveney said the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government was considering the matter but could not give a timeline for implementation. 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.
Possible 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 list functions which might be performed by the commission, and notes who is currently responsible for them.