The Administrative Officer of Corporate Services, Karen Hanley, delivered a presentation of an update on the Electoral Register. The presentation summarised the recent Electoral Commission Report and gave an update on the upcoming voter.ie project.

Oversight Report on the Electoral Register

• The report was published on the 1^st May 2025 by the Electoral Commission (EC).
• The EC was ‘deeply concerned’ at the legacy accuracy issues on the electoral registers nationally and has recommended a plan for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the 31 local authorities to address this issue before the next round of electoral events in 2029.
• The EC stated that “Roscommon’s register appears to be one of the more accurate registers’’.
• Roscommon ranks 2^nd nationally for elector date of births, 10^th for elector Eircodes, 4^th for combined DOB and Eircodes, and 31^st for elector PPSNs recorded (the national average is low for this metric and PPSNs can be hard to obtain due to GDPR).
• Overall Roscommon County Council is noted by the Electoral Commission as having one of the more accurate registers, with high levels for DOB, Eircode and combined DOB/Eircode records.
• Roscommon had fieldworkers in 2023 and are employing them again for 2025, from June to August 2025.
• The findings from the EC include a recommended increase in funding for each local authority to enable maintenance and the updating of their registers, they also recommend that local authorities should develop and publish plans setting out their activities on the register. The EC have committed to carryout annual assessments on electoral registers nationally. The move to one single electoral register nationally should also help improve accuracy on the register.

Changes in Electoral Registration 2025-2026

• Three electoral events were held in 2024 (March, June and November). There was over 9% increase in the number of Electors in Roscommon, 10,762 electoral records added, deleted or updated and as of 17^th December 2024, there were 53,724 electors on the register.
• Registration Activities in 2024 included 400 new register applications following school’s roadshows, library visits in Strokestown & Castlerea, advertisements on Facebook, X, Instagram and through printed media, seminars in schools, communities and online to encourage increasing the participation of women and diversity in Local Government including voter registration.
• In 2025 and 2026, there will be increased activity due to online applications and rolling registration, data cleansing work being carried out prior to moving to a single National System (voter.ie) and carrying out the recommendations of the EC.
• Local Government Electoral Registration System (LGERS) Project: The Electoral Reform Act 2022 mandated the creation of a single national database for the electoral register to make it easier for electors to register online and improve the accuracy of data.
• Each local authority will still be responsible for the accuracy of its own register.
• Data cleansing will take place until early 2026, after which the national roll out of voter.ie will be carried out.
• The term of office of the current President expires on 10th November 2025. An election shall be held in the 60-day period before the expiry. This election will be run on the existing register system and is not impacted by the voter.ie project.
• Voter.ie will replace the Check the Register portal and back-office system, the new system will use MyGovID in addition to PPSN authentication, it will be easier to search for townlands, addresses and the elector’s own registration details, all address details will be included bilingually to comply with Irish Language Acts, electors will be allowed to upload documentation (change of citizenship, name etc.), and standardize data protection and retention.
• Data work that is currently underway for 2025 in the Franchise section includes completing townland and polling station addresses (English and Irish), working through priority identified data issues (full database data cleansing), following up with potential duplicate electors and working with other local authorities to identify potential duplicates/deceased across county borders.

Cathaoirleach Cllr. Fitzmaurice thanked Ms. Hanley for the informative presentation and noted the scale of changes that are being made. He also mentioned issues regarding electors voting at Polling Stations that is not their closest one and questioned whether there was any plan to review this. He also thanked those working on the register for their work.

Members broadly thanked Ms. Hanley for her presentation and discussed the following points:

• Praise for the work carried out and delight that Roscommon was in the top few counties of most metrics.
• It was questioned if the use of MyGovID was necessary on the new system, due to issues with the site historically.
• Agreement that a single National Database would have a positive effect on the accuracy of the register.
• It was questioned if an automated process of notifying/adding people turning 18 to the register could be looked at.
• Concern with regards some of the scoring of other counties in the report.
• Reiteration of a review to the Polling Stations being needed.
• Concerns were raised that the public does not have sufficient trust in the register to share their PPSN data, making it challenging to obtain this information.
• The discrepancies that were highlighted in relation to Polling Stations are also prevalent in Municipal District/engineering areas.
• Concerns were raised in relation to Postal Voting, and it was recommended that it should be less restrictive to include people who are out of the country on polling days.
• Disappointment at the number of ballot papers not stamped in last year’s Local and General Elections.
• Concerns that any change to electoral boundaries should be made well in advance of Local Elections so that candidates could be informed.

Ms. Hanley advised that some of the issues raised were not a matter for the Council and therefore couldn’t address them.

• She clarified that the absence of fieldworkers in 2024 was due to the high number of electoral events that occurred during the year. She confirmed that for 2025, preparation is in progress and the fieldworkers are scheduled to commence in the coming months.
• She added that fieldworkers will encourage electors to update their PPSN data on checktheregister.ie
• She explained that Polling Stations are a matter for the Courts Service.
• She also explained that the use of MyGovID for the new system is being driven nationally.
• She noted that electors can already pre-register before they are 18 and are automatically registered to vote after their 18^th birthday.
• She reiterated that the EC’s concerns are with the legacy records, not with live records, therefore there should be no trust issues nationally with the overall system.
• She advised that the policy regarding Postal Votes is set in legislation, and local authorities are bound by regulations as to the granting of same.

Director of Services Caitlín Conneely stated that the issue concerning unstamped Ballot Papers in last year’s elections were addressed with the Courts Service at the time. She further clarified that any amendments to Polling Stations fall under the remit of the Courts Service, and that changes to electoral boundaries can only happen following a national census, which is an issue that is beyond the control of the Council’s authority.