Written answers
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
Department of Environment, Community and Local Government
Electoral Commission Establishment
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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263. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he envisions an electoral commission in the lifetime of the Government or if he has a proposed timeline or target date for establishment of an electoral commission. [19651/16]
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In 2015, on the basis of a consultation paper prepared by my Department, and at the invitation of the then Minister, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht undertook a public consultation process on the establishment of an electoral commission. The Committee published a report on the consultation in January 2016. This report contains a series of recommendations regarding the establishment of an electoral commission, including functions which should be assigned to it; independence, membership and accountability mechanisms; and the establishment process. The report will inform the implementation of the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government on establishing an electoral commission. I am not in a position at this point to indicate a definitive timeline for the establishment of an electoral commission, which will bring a fundamentally changed approach to the management and administration of elections and will require detailed consideration and analysis prior to legislating for its establishment; the matter is, however, currently under consideration in my Department.
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