Register of Electors
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22
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Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The Electoral Reform Act 2022 provided for significant changes to streamline and modernise the electoral registration process, including the introduction of continuous and online registration, as well as the use of PPSNs in the registration process, making it easier for people to check and update their information. In the intervening period, over 1 million applications for updates to the register have been made by the public through the online portals.
The Act also put in place the legal basis for a new national electoral registration system, which will be delivered by Dublin City Council this year, supported by the Department. The new, integrated national system will, among other things, enable local authorities to identify and manage duplicate and deceased electors at national level. Overall, the system will streamline the administration of the register of electors within a modern, secure architecture and will provide an enhanced service to the public, including through enabling the use of MyGovID.
Building on the €6.5 million made available directly to local authorities since 2023 to improve the data quality of their electoral registers, in 2025 the Minister, Deputy Browne, made nearly €5 million available to fund two clerical officers at grade Ill for a period of 18 months in each local authority to undertake specific tasks to prepare for migration to the new system, including standardisation and translation, as well as identifying and following up on deceased and potentially duplicated electors across the country.
An Coimisiún Toghcháin, in its first annual report on electoral registers in May 2025, identified with concern the legacy issues around register data but acknowledged the enormous amount of work being carried out by local authorities to address these while making recommendations to accelerate this work. The Government's commitment to this and the work of local authorities are yielding results. In December 2025 the local government sector reported that over one in four entries on the register had been updated and has an associated PPSN, which means these entries have been checked and confirmed. A total of 74% of entries had a date of birth, 73% had an eircode and 60% of registered electors have both. We expect these trends to continue.
Local authorities, which have responsibility for electoral registration, have done a huge amount of work to get us to this point and I acknowledge this. In addition, the engagement of the public is critical. Each of us is responsible for ensuring that our details on the register are current and correct. Senator Gallagher made reference to encouraging the public when they are written to by the local authority to revert to it as quickly as possible. Clearly, we want to people on the register and we want the register to be accurate. Engagement with the public and people coming back to the local authorities is very important. This is the latest update from the Minister.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-22