THE GOVERNMENT HAS said that a new Electoral Commission will be fully operational before the local and European elections in 2024, with groundwork now underway to establish the Commission.

Housing, Local Government and Heritage Minister Darragh O’Brien received Cabinet approval to establish the Commission earlier today.

It comes after the Electoral Reform Bill was signed into law by President Michael D Higgins in late July, despite concerns from the Opposition who said that the bill had been “rammed” through both chambers of the Oireachtas.

The Commission itself will be independent of the Government and will report directly to the Oireachtas.

The work of the new commission will include existing statutory functions like the registration of political parties and will take over the work of the Referendum Commission, Constituency Commission and the Local Electoral Area Boundary Committees.

The Commission will also be responsible for regulation of online political advertising during elections, oversee the electoral register and promote public awareness of referendums.

The current process of separate Referendum Commissions for individual referendums will also be no longer the case under the new Commission.

The first steps of establishing the commission will be around securing a premises, IT, staff and selecting a Chief Executive to lead the Electoral Commission.

The underlying Electoral Reform Bill also was amended to allow for the expansion of the number of TDs within the Dáil due to Ireland’s growing population.

The bill allows for the number of TDs to increase to at least 169 TDs and up to a maximum of 179 TDs.

Preliminary data from the 2022 Census shows that the Dáil will require at least 11 new TDs, as Ireland’s population is now at 5,123,536 people, the highest figure since 1841.

This will lead to an increase in the number of TDs who are elected to the 39 constituencies, due to the Constitution requiring one TD for every 20,000 to 30,000 people.