National Election and Democracy Study

The Electoral Reform Act 2022 provides An Coimisiún Toghcháin (An Coimisiún) with a significant mandate to prepare research programmes and conduct research on electoral policy and procedure including on matters relating to the discharge of its functions. In July 2024, An Coimisiún Toghcháin published its first Research Programme 2024-2026 after a public consultation process. This Programme included a commitment to develop a National Election and Democracy Study (NEDS) for Ireland.

Despite having a well-regarded body of research on elections and electoral behaviour, Ireland lags behind other countries in relation to the availability of reliable and comprehensive data about its elections. Such studies have been in place in many other countries for well over 50 years. With the NEDS, An Coimisiún aims to rectify this deficit and build a democratic databank to measure over time the views, attitudes and experiences of the Irish public of electoral events and democracy and the factors that influence these. Within this, there will be a particular focus on factors to better understand turnout and political participation, as these are key areas for An Coimisiún.

This data also informs the separate Post Electoral Event Reviews (PEERs) which An Coimisiún are required to prepare and publish after each electoral event with particular requirements to look at the accessibility of the voting process for individuals with disabilities, illnesses or literacy challenges.

In addition, the NEDS also includes questions which are a key focus for political scientists and academics in Election Studies and other research around whether and how people used their vote and motivations and influences around voting choices. Questions in this part of the study are selected by the academic members of the NEDS Management Board (see below). Collecting data in these areas allows Ireland to be part of comparative research and international studies on political and electoral systems and democracy.

The data gathered through the NEDS is anonymised and open source so as to provide stakeholders, researchers, the public, the media and the political system with high quality information about the state of Ireland’s democracy.

This National Election and Democracy Study project is overseen and managed by a Management Board. This Board is composed of a team of leading electoral experts and academics: 

• Dr. Rory Costello, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick,
• Professor Johan A. Dornschneider-Elkink, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin,
• Professor Georg Lutz, Director Fors (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), University of Lausanne,
• Professor Gail McElroy, Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin,
• Professor Theresa Reidy, Department of Government and Politics, University College Cork, and
• Professor Jane Suiter, School of Communications, Dublin City University.

The Board is chaired by Dr. Mary-Clare O’Sullivan, Head of Research, An Coimisiún Toghcháin.

To date, there are five NEDS datasets covering the electoral events which have taken place since An Coimisiún’s establishment in 2023.

• the Family and Care Referendums in March 2024,
• the Local and European Elections and the Limerick mayoral Election in June 2024.

A separate data collection process took place for the 2024 General Election and this data is available below.

A General Election to elect the 34th Dáil took place on 29 November 2024. Advised by the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned a nationally representative face-to-face survey including non-voters as well as voters. There are two parts to the study.

The first covers questions which are of interest to An Coimisiún Toghcháin in providing information to support it in delivering its functions covering topics like voter experience, voter knowledge and voter engagement.

The second part covers questions selected by the experts on the NEDS Management Board informed by existing academic electoral research studies. These support the development of quality electoral research for Ireland and brings Ireland into line with data collected for other countries, thereby allowing participation in international and comparative studies.

There was also a focus on gauging opinions and attitudes among those eligible to vote who did not vote on this occasion, whether registered or not registered to inform potential measures to increase voter participation.

The survey was conducted face to face with fieldwork taking place between 1 December 2024 and 28 February 2025. Research was conducted in n=287 electoral districts in the Republic of Ireland which was representative of the country in terms of geographic location, urban/rural setting, and using Pobal’s HP deprivation index.

A total of n=1426 took part in the study, consisting of n=1101 voters in the 2024 General Election and n=324 non-voters (1 respondent did not disclose voting status). Non-voters are broken out by both registered non-voters (n=214) and eligible non-registered (n=110).

The questionnaire and a summary slide deck are available below.

2024 General Election

questionnaire report (slide deck)

The face-to-face dataset was further bolstered by an online sample of 1,421 respondents (1,100 voters and 321 non-voters). Unlike the face-to-face survey, the online survey data is not based on a random probabilistic sample so is not included in the summary slide deck. The online dataset and codebooks are however publicly available on request as a complement to the primary face-to-face study and will allow more detailed analysis of cohorts of smaller sample size.

The full datasets and codebooks for both the face-to-face and online surveys can be requested by contacting research@electoralcommission.ie.

Local and European elections took place on Friday 7 June 2024. In consultation with the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned an online study (n = 3045). which took place between the 8 and 15 June and engaged a representative sample of adults across Ireland. The questionnaire and slide deck is available below.

Local and European elections

questionnaire report (slide deck)

Ireland’s first ever election for a directly elected mayor took place on Friday 7 June 2024.

In consultation with the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned a voters’ survey of a representative sample of close to 900 voters outside 52 polling stations in Limerick after they had voted.

The questionnaires and slide decks are available here. The raw data and codebooks can be freely requested from An Coimisiún Toghcháin by emailing research@electoralcommission.ie.

Limerick mayoral election

questionnaire report (slide deck)

Two referendums took place on the 8th of March 2024. The first referendum dealt with the Constitutional definition of the family, while the second was based on the issue of care.
In consultation with the NEDS Management Board, An Coimisiún commissioned three surveys to accompany these referendums. These included two pre-referendum surveys, an online survey (n = 1,041) and a telephone survey (n = 1,001) as well as a voter’s survey (n= 3,557) at 185 polling stations across Ireland.

The questionnaires and slide decks are available here. The raw data and codebooks can be freely requested from An Coimisiún Toghcháin by emailing research@electoralcommission.ie.

Pre-referendum survey	questionnaire report (slide deck)
Post-referendum survey	questionnaire report (slide deck)