Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Moynihan, Hoey, Sherlock and Wall for this amendment, which proposes that the establishment date of the electoral commission be appointed as a day not later than four weeks from the passage into law of the Electoral Reform Bill. I do not propose to accept this amendment for a number of reasons.

First, the Bill is subject to commencement provisions as set out in section 1(5). These are not time-bound. The placement of such a time-bound provision in the Bill would not be advisable from a technical perspective. Under section 6, there will be a single establishment day for the commission. There is no provision for establishing the commission to carry out certain functions and not others. I do not believe this would be a sensible approach. Notwithstanding that, it is my firm intention that the commission shall be established as soon as possible. To this end, a transition team has been put in place within the Department to progress the administrative elements of its establishment. Support is being received from a range of public bodies in this regard and the commission will be established as a matter of priority.

The Bill provides for the review of Dáil and European Parliament constituencies to be undertaken by the new electoral commission following its establishment. It also provides for the repeal of Part II of the Electoral Act 1997, including section 5, which currently provides for the establishment of a Constituency Commission following the publication of a census of population report setting out the preliminary results of a census. Under the provisions of the Bill, the report of the electoral commission on the review of Dáil and European Parliament constituencies will be published within three months of the publication of final census results. This mirrors current arrangements whereby a Constituency Commission must complete its work within three months of the publication of final census results. While the publication of final census results is a matter for the Central Statistics Office, final results of this year's census are anticipated for publication in spring 2023. This would indicate that a final report from the electoral commission on Dáil and European Parliament constituencies can be expected this time next year. It will be a matter for the Oireachtas to legislate for revised constituency boundaries following its consideration of the final report of the commission.