Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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196. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the progress made to date with regard to implementing the commitment in the programme for Government to establish an electoral commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18492/17]

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 is informing the implementation of the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government on establishing an electoral commission and it is informing the preparation of an Electoral Commission Bill to give effect to that.  My Department is in the first instance preparing a Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Bill.