20 June 2025 – A Post Electoral Event Review of this year’s Seanad Elections is recommending a law change to ensure that Seanad voter registration deadlines do not close in the months before an election is declared.

Current law does not allow for supplementary registers in Seanad elections, meaning there is one fixed deadline each year that people must be registered by or risk missing out on their Seanad vote.

This change is among 11 recommendations on Ireland’s Seanad elections, all aimed at improving the electoral process and its accessibility ahead of the next Seanad elections.

This is the first review of a Seanad election in the State’s history and sets out a detailed explainer on the historic evolution of Ireland’s upper house, and how the Seanad nominations, elections, votes and counts happen.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, has today published, and laid before the Oireachtas its Post Electoral Event Review (PEER) of the 2025 Seanad General Election.

Recommendations are made for the newly established Seanad Higher Education constituency and for the existing Seanad panel elections, and include:

• Strengthening quality assurance checks on the new register of electors for the Higher Education constituency,
• Reviewing current procedures surrounding the delivery of Seanad ballot papers by registered post in university elections,
• Streamlining the count process for panel elections,
• Including a standardised stamp or watermark on all university ballot papers before they are issued,
• and ensuring that all announcements in count centres are delivered in English, Irish and Irish Sign Language.

Members and staff of An Coimisiún Toghcháin observed key stages of the Seanad electoral processes and counts and maintained dialogue with the three returning officers and other key stakeholders throughout this election.

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

“Seanad elections have their own unique processes and panels which for the first time ever we have been able to independently dive into to see where improvements can be made. Our thanks to the returning officers, election officials and others who helped facilitate this independent work.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Brian Dawson, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, 

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission,

086 0749344 Brian.dawson@electoralcommission.ie 

– ENDS-

Editor’s Note:

The Post Electoral Event Review Report on 2025 Seanad General Election is available at the following links:

English version / Leagan Gaeilge

This PEER Report is published under Section 68 of the Electoral Reform Act which provides for such reviews and is a report on the administration of the electoral event concerned. 

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 and new electoral functions, including:

• overseeing the modernised Electoral Register, making recommendations and setting standards in relation to its maintenance and updating;
• promoting public awareness of, and working to increase public participation in the State’s electoral and democratic processes through education and information programmes;
• responsibility for the registration of political parties;
• preparing research programmes and conducting research on electoral policy and procedure, and providing advice, as required, to the Minister and Government;
• the preparation of ex-post reports on the administration of electoral events;
• 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.
• making reports for the Minister in relation to local electoral boundaries;
• 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); and
• 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).

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