About Us
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;
- acting as the National Contact Point for implementation of certain aspects of the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) Regulation in Ireland.
- the preparation of ex-post reports on the administration of electoral events.
Our purpose is to safeguard and strengthen democracy in Ireland by building public understanding, participation and trust in the electoral system
Ireland is a global leader in electoral integrity, participation and trust. The people of Ireland have the highest levels of participation in electoral events, which they recognise and value as fair, free and impartial.
Ireland’s electoral process is trusted and valued as being fair, free and impartial. The people are informed, engaged and empowered, leading to the highest turnouts in electoral events. Through enhancing understanding and active participation in democracy An Coimisiún Toghcháin counteracts potentially negative impacts of misinformation and disinformation on the electoral and democratic process.
Particular values and behaviours are required to support the achievement of our ambition, in pursuit of our purpose.
Our values define how we approach our work, how we work as a Commission and how we engage with people. We believe that our values are key to our culture, and critical to our performance as an organisation.
The Civil Service has a strong public service ethos epitomised in its core values of, integrity, impartiality, equality, transparency, fairness and respect which guides and influences how it does business. These values underpin our approach to our purpose.
In particular, we will ensure we are accountable in our work. This means we will be answerable and transparent in fulfilling our commitments. Accountability is a key factor in building trust in what we do, fostering a sense of reliability and strengthening our independence.
We also see the following values as core to delivering our mandate.
Independence
We will always act in the public interest. We are honourable, impartial and independent. We take the hard decisions, without fear or favour.
Excellence
We will make every effort to operate to the highest professional standards in what we do and in how we do things. We measure our personal and organisational effectiveness and impact and accept accountability for our actions. We will base our decisions on robust, reliable and valid data and evidence.
Innovation
We are a forward-looking organisation, embracing innovation to achieve our ambitions. We learn continuously and seek to make things better. We are agile and dynamic, proactively responding to the world around us.
Collaboration
We value collegiality and collaboration, recognising that the best outcomes are most often achieved in partnership with others.