Art O’Leary appointed as Chief Executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin

The government has today appointed Art O’Leary Chief Executive An Coimisiún Toghcháin/The Electoral Commission. Mr O’Leary was recruited and selected through an open recruitment process run by the Public Appointments Service. An Coimisiún Toghcháin, which was established in February 2023 and which is independent of Government, performs a broad range of electoral functions and will be central to the administration, development and protection of our democratic processes and institutions.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin has a range of functions in the areas of providing public information; research on electoral policy; reviewing constituencies and electoral events; and promoting public awareness and participation in electoral and democratic processes. The Electoral Act 2022 also provides for the commission being assigned functions in the regulation of online political advertising and protecting the integrity of elections.

In line with the Electoral Reform Act 2022, Mr O’Leary has been appointed for a period of five years. In May 2021, he was appointed to lead the Electoral Commission Establishment Team in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. In December 2022, he was appointed by the government as Chief Executive of An Coimisiún on an interim basis.

His career has included a period of seven years serving as Secretary General to the President (2014-2021). Prior to that he was Secretary to the Constitutional Convention, a two-year citizen-led initiative to consider constitutional change in a wide number of areas, from the electoral system to marriage equality. He also led the Citizens’ Assemblies on mayoral government (2022-23) and biodiversity loss (2022).

Mr O’Leary also worked in the Houses of the Oireachtas for over 20 years, primarily as a member of the senior management team as Director of Parliamentary Committees, Information & Communications, Human Resources and as head of a number of procedural functions.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, established on 9 February 2023, has the following responsibilities in Ireland’s electoral processes:

• the registration of political parties
• explaining the subject matter of referendum proposals
• reviewing and making reports in relation to the constituencies for Dáil and European Parliament elections
• making reports in relation to local electoral issues
• a new research and advisory role, conducting research on electoral policy and procedure and making recommendations to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and/or the government
• conducting reviews of how electoral events were conducted
• promote public awareness of, and participation in, the State’s electoral and democratic processes and encourage the public to vote at electoral events
• provide oversight of the electoral register

The Electoral Reform Act 2022 also provides for the following functions to be assigned to the commission:

• the regulation of online political advertising around electoral events to ensure transparency
• safeguarding the integrity of our electoral and democratic processes against the dissemination or publication of online disinformation, online misinformation and manipulative or inauthentic behaviour online