Regulatory impact analysis of the new electoral commission Bill

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government when the regulatory impact analysis of the new electoral commission Bill will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

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.  
 
The report is 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 I expect to publish in the coming weeks. The RIA will set out  a number of options for establishing an electoral commission, including functions that might be assigned to it.