Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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684. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in view of the recent referendum voting turnout, if he will arrange for appropriate research to be carried out on the reasons persons vote and the reason persons did not vote, to ascertain the factors that may be considered to ensure greater voter interest in further constitutional referendums in the future. [46438/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I have no immediate plans to arrange for research to be carried out into the reasons people voted or did not vote at recent referendums.

In June and July 2013 I established Referendum Commissions in relation to the proposals for amendments of the Constitution - Abolition of Seanad Éireann and Court of Appeal – which were put by referendum to the decision of the people on 4 October 2013. The two Referendum Commissions effectively operated as one and in accordance with section 14 of the Referendum Act 1998, the Commission will be submitting a report to me in relation to its performance of the functions assigned to it in relation to the referendums. These functions include the promotion of public awareness of the referendums and encouraging the electorate to vote at the polls. I will be laying copies of the report before each House of the Oireachtas following its submission to me by the Referendum Commission. I understand that the report will contain some details of post-referendum research undertaken by the Commission. While the main purpose of the research is to assess the effectiveness of the various elements of the Commission’s information campaigns, it also explores reasons for voting in the recent referendums.

Previous Referendum Commission reports, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas library, include similar analysis undertaken in relation to previous referendums. In addition, over €5million in State funding under the Electoral Acts is made available annually to political parties to fund a range of activities including research, education and training. It would, therefore, be open to those political parties to use these funds to carry out research of the type proposed.