Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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220. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the electoral commission Bill; if it will encompass regulation of social media; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21895/18]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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224. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the preparation of legislation for the establishment of an electoral commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21561/18]

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 220 and 224 together.

The 2016 report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht on the establishment of an electoral commission is informing the implementation of the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government on establishing an electoral commission and the preparation of an Electoral Commission Bill to give effect to that. The Joint Oireachtas Committee did not make any specific recommendations about the commission having a role in regulating social media. No decisions have been made about the functions of the commission and are still under consideration. Meanwhile, work is ongoing in my Department in preparing, in the first instance, a Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Bill.