National Election and Democracy Study

The Electoral Reform Act 2022 provides An Coimisiún Toghcháin (An Coimisiún) with a significant mandate to prepare research programmes and conduct research on electoral policy and procedure including on matters relating to the discharge of its functions. In July 2024, An Coimisiún Toghcháin published its first Research Programme 2024-2026 after a public consultation process. This Programme included a commitment to develop a National Election and Democracy Study (NEDS) for Ireland.

Despite having a well-regarded body of research on elections and electoral behaviour, Ireland lags behind other countries in relation to the availability of reliable and comprehensive data about its elections. Such studies have been in place in many other countries for well over 50 years. With the NEDS, An Coimisiún aims to rectify this deficit and build a democratic databank to measure over time the views, attitudes and experiences of the Irish public of electoral events and democracy and the factors that influence these. Within this, there will be a particular focus on factors to better understand turnout and political participation, as these are key areas for An Coimisiún.

This data also informs the separate Post Electoral Event Reviews (PEERs) which An Coimisiún are required to prepare and publish after each electoral event with particular requirements to look at the accessibility of the voting process for individuals with disabilities, illnesses or literacy challenges.

In addition, the NEDS also includes questions which are a key focus for political scientists and academics in Election Studies and other research around whether and how people used their vote and motivations and influences around voting choices. Questions in this part of the study are selected by the academic members of the NEDS Management Board (see below). Collecting data in these areas allows Ireland to be part of comparative research and international studies on political and electoral systems and democracy.

The data gathered through the NEDS is anonymised and open source so as to provide stakeholders, researchers, the public, the media and the political system with high quality information about the state of Ireland’s democracy.

This National Election and Democracy Study project is overseen and managed by a Management Board. This Board is composed of a team of leading electoral experts and academics: 

• Dr. Rory Costello, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick,
• Prof. Johan A. Dornschneider-Elkink, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin,
• Professor Georg Lutz, Director Fors (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), University of Lausanne,
• Professor Gail McElroy, Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin,
• Dr. Theresa Reidy, Department of Government and Politics, University College Cork, and
• Professor Jane Suiter, School of Communications, Dublin City University.

The Board is chaired by Dr. Mary-Clare O’Sullivan, Head of Research, An Coimisiún Toghcháin.

To date, there are five NEDS datasets covering the electoral events which have taken place since An Coimisiún’s establishment in 2023.

• the Family and Care Referendums in March 2024,
• the Local and European Elections and the Limerick mayoral Election in June 2024.

A separate data collection process took place for the 2024 General Election and this data will become available in the coming weeks.

Local and European elections took place on Friday 7 June 2024. In consultation with the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned an online study (n = 3045). which took place between the 8 and 15 June and engaged a representative sample of adults across Ireland. The questionnaire and slide deck is available below.

Local and European elections

questionnaire report (slide deck)

Ireland’s first ever election for a directly elected mayor took place on Friday 7 June 2024.

In consultation with the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned a voters’ survey of a representative sample of close to 900 voters outside 52 polling stations in Limerick after they had voted.

The questionnaires and slide decks are available here. The raw data and codebooks can be freely requested from An Coimisiún Toghcháin by emailing research@electoralcommission.ie.

Limerick mayoral election

questionnaire report (slide deck)

Two referendums took place on the 8th of March 2024. The first referendum dealt with the Constitutional definition of the family, while the second was based on the issue of care.
In consultation with the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned three surveys to accompany these referendums. These included two pre-referendum surveys, an online survey (n = 1,041) and a telephone survey (n = 1,001) as well as a voter’s survey (n= 3,557) at 185 polling stations across Ireland.

The questionnaires and slide decks are available here. The raw data and codebooks can be freely requested from An Coimisiún Toghcháin by emailing research@electoralcommission.ie.

Pre-referendum survey	questionnaire report (slide deck)
Post-referendum survey	questionnaire report (slide deck)

A General Election to elect the 34th Dáil took place on 29 November 2024. Advised by the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned a face-to-face (n=1,400) survey to collect information on voting experience, voters’ electoral knowledge, voter registration and awareness of An Coimisiún Toghcháin.

Data collection took place between the 1 December 2024, and the 28 of February 2025. The target sample was 1,400 respondents with 400 of these to be non-voters. Employing a probabilistic sampling framework, the survey respondents were chosen at random using Eircode data provided by GeoDirectory. Respondents were further stratified by Electoral Division (n = 280) in accordance with Pobal’s Social Deprivation Index.

This data is currently being collated and will be published in the coming weeks.