Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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229. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the establishment of a permanent electoral commission as committed to in the programme for partnership Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38092/18]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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233. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to collate or mandate a public body to collate voter turnout statistics by demographic particularly by age to improve voter accessibility and information as collated by the CSO until 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38096/18]

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 229 and 233 together.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht undertook a public consultation process on the establishment of an electoral commission on the basis of a consultation paper prepared by my Department in 2015. 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.

In the report, voter turnout and voter education are identified as matters in need of attention. The Committee also recommended that the development and implementation of policy on voter facilitation measures and the development and implementation of innovative ways to enhance voter education and engagement (including obstacles to registration) be assigned as functions to the electoral commission.

These, along with the other recommendations in the report, are informing the implementation of the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government on establishing an electoral commission, including the preparation of an Electoral Commission Bill to give effect to that commitment. My Department is, in the first instance, preparing a Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Bill, which is expected to be completed later in the Autumn.

I have no immediate plans to collate or mandate a public body to collate voter turnout statistics by demographic. These are matters that will be considered in the assignment of functions to the electoral commission in due course.