The department notes that the Annual Report 2017 of the Standards in Public Office Commission (July 2018) recommends that an “…electoral commission should be established, and a comprehensive review of the Electoral Acts should take place, preferably in the context of the creation of an electoral commission.” Plans to establish an Electoral Commission are now being advanced in the department in accordance with the commitment in A programme for a Partnership Government and having regard to the recent recommendations in the first Report of the Interdepartmental Group on security of Ireland’s Electoral Process and Disinformation (June 2018) that this work should be expedited and that the issue of spending limits and transparency requirements around Referendums should also be examined.