Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We will brush over that one. To give some context, an electoral commission is something about which there is a great deal of consensus. It was promised in the programme for Government in 2007 to 2012, as pointed out by Senator Mooney. The then Minister, John Gormley, commissioned the report that many of us have commented on and read. The Preliminary Study on the Establishment of an Electoral Commission in Ireland by political scientists and lawyers from UCD, was submitted to the Department of the Environment in November 2008 but at that time unfortunately the report was perhaps overshadowed by other political events. The report makes very clear recommendations for reform for the establishment of an electoral commission through legislation, on which others have commented, through the enactment of an electoral commission Act, with the functions currently performed by the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, and the registrar of political parties being combined within this single body but that it would also take on a range of other functions including, the registration of political parties, the compilation of the electoral register, and others have commented strongly about the current difficulties in its compilation, the delimiting of constituencies, the administration of elections, party and election funding and research and promotion. Senator van Turnhout commented on the referendum commissions and a commission is established at each referendum. The ad hocestablishment of them has given rise to problems.