More than 400,000 names have been removed from Ireland’s electoral register in the past three years, an Oireachtas Committee heard yesterday.
On Tuesday, State electoral body An Coimisiún Toghcháin appeared at a meeting of the Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, where it reported on voter data, register maintenance and electoral integrity.
It said the names were removed because individuals have emigrated, received multiple ballots incorrectly or have died.
There is still “a long way to go” to improve accuracy and completeness, the Committee heard.
It follows elderly residents in Wexford expressing distress when they received letters from Wexford County Council in February warning they would be removed from the register unless they supplied further details within two weeks. One Councillor claimed that letters had arrived without advanced notice.
The Electoral Commission’s own May 2025 report acknowledged that reports during 2024 indicated that the number of incorrect entries was unknown, and that deletions had been caused by human error.
Questions have been raised about whether the latest removal of entries may have resulted in eligible voters being removed, rather than simply outdated entries being cleaned up.
Back in May, when appearing before the Committee, Electoral Commission chief executive Art O’Leary said that around 300,000 names had been removed from the register in two years.
It said this week that 242,000 entries had been removed since May 2025 alone.
Mr O’Leary said the electoral register “is the foundation stone of our democracy and elections,” accepting that it “will never be perfect, it’s a living document”.
Representing Ireland’s elections watchdog on Tuesday, Mr O’Leary said that progress had been made in further cleaning up the register, but concerns remained around accuracy and the low rate of pre-registration among young people.
It heard that fewer than 2% of teenagers aged 16 and 17 were pre-registered to vote. Nearly 70% of unregistered people, meanwhile, are under 35.
TDs asked whether there was a way to address this; Fine Gael TD Paula Butterly asked Mr O’Leary if it would help to have “compulsory voting” like in Australia.
However, Mr O’Leary said that “Australia admits that if compulsory [voting] was introduced now, they’d never get away with it,” and said that it may not be a popular proposal in Ireland.
“That costs the Australians AUS$6bn (€3.6bn) to run an election, because they go to those lengths,” he said.
Mr O’Leary said that all local authorities have not migrated to the unified national Voter.ie electoral registration system, which went live in May 2026. It allows the public to check, update or register their electoral details online.
The commission has said that the goal of the system is to make it easier to identify duplicate entries, remove outdated records and transfer votes between local authorities.
Dublin City Council manages the national system on behalf of local authorities, with funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The CCMA said yesterday that the project was delivered on time and within budget.
Each of Ireland’s 31 local authorities has a service-level agreement with Dublin City Council, setting out responsibilities for operating the system.
ELECTION POSTERS SHOULD NOT BE BANNED
Mr O’Leary said the commission was “not recommending that electoral posters disappear,” saying that they play an important role in informing voters of elections.
An Coimisiún Toghcháin called for stronger enforcement and limits in regards to election posters. It said that around 280,000 posters were used during the 2024 General Election, which accounted for around one third of all election spending.
However, Mr O’Leary said that the costs amount to “one third of coffee cups used a day, or two flights to the United States.”
Calling for tighter controls, it recommended not that election posters be abolished, but called for stronger enforcement of existing laws, clearer responsibility for enforcement, and better communication about safety risks. It also recommended phased limits on poster size and shape, as well as improved recycling and disposal.
The review of posters followed a Government request to examine the use of posters in Irish elections and referendums, including placing a possible limit on numbers and designated location. Overall, the public consultation found that posters were divisive, with some people supporting them while others disliked them.
The County and City Management Association (CCMA) provided further detail on how the new registration system operates. It said that the system is hosted on Microsoft Azure, with a security operations centre operating around the clock. Local authorities, it added, reviewed and standardised electoral data throughout 2025 and early 2026 before migrating to the new system.
The CCMA said the new centralised system will support more consistent processes and improved data management along with enhanced security.