15 July, 2024 – An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, has today published the report on the performance of its functions in relation to the Family and Care referendums held on 8 March this year.  

The report lays out how An Coimisiún delivered on its functions set out in the Electoral Reform Act 2022 to provide a general explanation of the proposals for referendums to the public, to promote awareness of the referendums and to encourage engagement and turnout.

An Coimisiún also makes 5 recommendations to Government on issues which arose during the course of the referendum information campaign.

The recommendations are that:

1. The publication of a proposed amendment by Government should be no later than 16 weeks before the proposed polling day.
2. The Polling Day Order for a referendum should give a minimum of 60 days’ notice of a referendum polling day.
3. The broadcast moratorium should be removed from the guidelines for radio and television broadcasters before the next electoral event.
4. The overall design of referendum ballot papers be reviewed in advance of the next referendum.
5. An Coimisiún Toghcháin should be funded from the Central Fund.

These Referendums marked An Coimisiún’s first electoral outing following its establishment in February 2023. Over the six weeks of the campaign period, An Coimisiún Toghcháin:

• Wrote, designed and printed 2.3m Referendum Information Booklets for delivery by An Post to every household, to care settings, libraries, citizens advice offices, post offices and to Irish personnel serving overseas. This booklet was also made available in a range of accessible formats including Easy to Read, Irish Sign Language, Braille, audio and large text versions.
• Created and delivered a 3-phase national public awareness advertising campaign which focused on getting people registered to vote, making them aware of the 8 March Referendums and encouraging them to vote.
• Held in-person campaign information events in communities across ten counties.
• Answered hundreds of questions through 58 local and national media interviews across TV, Radio, print and online media, including Irish language media.
• Saw 770,000 page visits to the information pages of our bilingual referendum website and more than 20,000 downloads of our Referendum Information Booklet.
• Responded to 1,184 public queries directly to An Coimisiún.

Art O’Leary, Chief Executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin stated:

“It’s our role as Ireland’s independent electoral commission to provide people with a general explanation of the proposals for referendums, to promote awareness of the referendums and to encourage people to get informed and vote.

“While fulfilling our referendum functions as set out in this report, we have also seen improvements that can be made including around issues of referendum campaign timings, the broadcast moratorium and the design of the ballot papers which can improve the voter experience in these kinds of constitutional votes.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Brian Dawson, Communications and Public Engagement Manager, 

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission,

086 0749344 Brian.dawson@electoralcommission.ie 

– ENDS-

Editor’s Note:

The Report on the Referendums on Family and Care is available at the following links:

English Version

Leagan Gaeilge

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission

An Coimisiún Toghcháin is a statutory, independent body, established on 9 February 2023 with responsibility for a broad range of electoral functions set out in the Electoral Reform Act 2022. An Coimisiún is central to Ireland’s electoral system, carrying out a range of existing electoral functions, including:

• the decision-making, oversight, secretariat and supporting services associated with explaining the subject matter of referendum proposals, the promotion of public awareness of referendums and encouragement of the electorate to vote at referendum polls; and
• the conducting of reviews and making reports in relation to the constituencies for the election of members to the Dáil and the election of members to the European Parliament.
• responsibility for the registration of political parties.
• making reports for the Minister in relation to local electoral boundaries. 

An Coimisiún is also tasked with several new electoral roles, including:

• preparing research programmes and conducting research on electoral policy and procedure, and providing advice, as required, to the Minister and Government.
• promoting public awareness of, and working to increase public participation in the State’s electoral and democratic processes through education and information programmes;
• overseeing the modernised Electoral Register, making recommendations and setting standards in relation to its maintenance and updating;
• the regulation of online paid-for political advertising, ensuring transparency in respect of online political advertisements during the period of an election or referendum campaign; (Legislation not yet commenced)
• responsibility for the investigation and monitoring of online disinformation, online misinformation and manipulative or inauthentic behaviour online during election campaign periods, as well as functions to prevent manipulative or inauthentic behaviours online. (Legislation not yet commenced)
• the preparation of ex-post reports on the administration of electoral events.

It is anticipated that the initial set of functions assigned to An Coimisiún will be expanded upon as it builds capacity and expertise.