Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the position regarding his commitment to set up an Electoral Commission to safeguard our electoral integrity and provide an independent well structured and adequately staffed office to oversee electoral function in a fully transparent manner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37520/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 87together.

The Programme for Government, agreed in 2007, contains a commitment to the establishment of an independent Electoral Commission. The renewed Programme for Government, agreed in October 2009, reaffirms this commitment and identifies a range of responsibilities which the Commission will be mandated to fulfil.

An independent Electoral Commission will require new legislation for purposes of its establishment and to transfer to it a range of roles and responsibilities including those assigned to the Standards in Public Office Commission in electoral law, the roles and responsibilities of the Constituency Commission and roles and responsibilities currently assigned to me as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This will involve changes to over 20 primary acts and to the associated regulations.

Towards implementing the Programme for Government commitments, and to assist in consideration of the issues involved, I commissioned a report by an expert group from University College Dublin. I published the report, entitled A Preliminary Study on the Establishment of an Electoral Commission in Ireland, for consultation in February 2009. The UCD study recommends that an Electoral Commission should be established through the enactment of an Electoral Commission Act, which would amend and consolidate the law relating to referendums and elections to local authorities, Údarás na Gaeltachta, the European Parliament, Dáil Éireann, Seanad Éireann and the office of President of Ireland. This is a major task and it is part of our considerations.

Many of the electoral reform issues that will come within the remit of an Electoral Commission were considered by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, which published its report on the electoral system in July 2010. This report, which indicates the Committee's strong support for the establishment of an independent Electoral Commission, is a valuable input and is being taken into account in progressing work in this area.

I am currently giving consideration to the approaches that are to be taken to implement the Programme for Government commitment to establish an independent Electoral Commission.