The Referendum Commission is an independent statutory

Statute

A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

 body in Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 which is set up in advance of any referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

. The Referendum Act 1998

Referendum Act 1998

The Referendum Act 1998 is an act of the Oireachtas which modified how referendums are carried out in Ireland. The act was necessary following the McKenna case where the Supreme Court of Ireland held that the spending of public money on constitutional referendums to support the...

 as amended by the Referendum Act 2001 provides for the establishment of the body.

Background

In 1995 Patricia McKenna

Patricia McKenna

Patricia McKenna is an Irish independent politician. She served as a Green Party Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency from 1994 to 2004.-Background:...

 won a case in the Supreme Court of Ireland, in which she argued successfully that it was unconstitutional for the Government of Ireland to spend taxpayers money promoting only one side of the argument in referendum campaign. Following the McKenna case, the first Referendum Commission was set up for the Amsterdam Treaty referendum

Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to ratify the Amsterdam Treaty. It was effected by the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1998, which was approved by referendum on 22 May 1998 and signed into law on the 3 June of the same year.-Changes to the...

.

Composition

The Act of 1998 provides that the Chairman of the commission should be a former judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

 of the Supreme Court or the High Court or a serving judge of the High Court. The other members of the commission are the Clerk

Clerk (legislature)

The Clerk, Chief Clerk, or Secretary of a chamber or house in a legislature is the senior administrative officer responsible for ensuring that its business runs smoothly. This may encompass keeping custody of documents received and produced, making records of proceedings, allocating office space,...

 of the Dáil

Dáil Éireann

Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...

, the Clerk of the Seanad

Seanad Éireann

Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas , which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann . It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members Senators or Seanadóirí . Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by...

, the Ombudsman and the Comptroller and Auditor General

Comptroller and Auditor General

Comptroller and auditor-general is the abbreviated title of a government official in a number of jurisdictions, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland, India, and China....

.

The members of the current commission (2011) for the 2011 constitutional referendums

Irish constitutional referendums, 2011

Two referendums were held simultaneously in Ireland on 27 October 2011, each on a proposed amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. The proposed amendments are on judicial salaries pay cuts, and to provide additional powers to Oireachtas committees....

 are:

Name	Role / Office
Bryan McMahon	Chairman / High Court judge
John Buckley	Comptroller and Auditor General
Emily O'Reilly Emily O'Reilly Emily O'Reilly is an author and former journalist and broadcaster who became Ireland's first female Ombudsman in 2003, succeeding Kevin Murphy....	Ombudsman
Kieran Coughlan	Clerk of the Dáil
Deirdre Lane	Clerk of the Seanad

Functions

Under the Referendum Act 1998 the commission initially had the role of setting out the arguments for and against referendum proposals, having regard to submissions received from the public. Following the passing of the Referendum Act 2001 the commission no longer has a statutory function in relation to putting the arguments for and against referendum proposals. The 2001 Act also removed from the commission the statutory function of fostering and promoting debate or discussion on referendum proposals.

A new referendum commission may be set up in for each new referendum that takes place, if the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government makes a ministerial order to appoint a commission. The current primary role of the commission is to explain the subject matter of referendum proposals, to promote public awareness of the referendum and to encourage the electorate to vote. It may help citizens find out some basic information about how to register to vote. The commission's information booklets are also produced in braille

Braille

The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...

 and audiotape for persons with visual impairments.

Once the commission completes its functions it furnishes a report to the Minister, within six months, on the carrying out of its functions and the commission then dissolves one month after the submission of this report.

List of commissions

Date established	Subject	Date of referendum	Referendum	Cost
2 March 1998	Amsterdam Treaty Amsterdam Treaty The Amsterdam Treaty, officially the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty of the European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts, was signed on 2 October 1997, and entered into force on 1 May 1999; it made substantial changes to the Maastricht Treaty,...	22 May 1998	18th Amendment Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to ratify the Amsterdam Treaty. It was effected by the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1998, which was approved by referendum on 22 May 1998 and signed into law on the 3 June of the same year.-Changes to the...	€2.8m
22 April 1998	Belfast Agreement Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement , sometimes called the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process...	22 May 1998	19th Amendment Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland introduced changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the constitution required by the 1998 Belfast Agreement . Prior to 1999, Articles 2 and 3 made the controversial claim that the whole island of Ireland formed one single "national territory"...	€2.7m
4 May 1999	Local government Local government in the Republic of Ireland Local government functions in the Republic of Ireland are mostly exercised by thirty-four local authorities, termed county or city councils, which cover the entire territory of the state. The area under the jurisdiction of each of these authorities corresponds to the area of each of the 34 LAU I...	11 June 1999	20th Amendment Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland provided constitutional recognition of local government and required that local government elections occur at least once in every five years...	€0.8m
17 April 2001	Death penalty Capital punishment Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...	7 June 2001	21st Amendment Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland introduced a constitutional ban on the death penalty and removed all references to capital punishment from the text...	€1.1m
	ICC International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...		23rd Amendment Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to become a party to the International Criminal Court . It was effected by the Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution Act, 2001, which was approved by referendum on 7 June 2001 and signed into law on the 27 March...	€1.1m
	Treaty of Nice Treaty of Nice The Treaty of Nice was signed by European leaders on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003. It amended the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Rome...		24th Amendment Bill, 2001	€1.6m
8 February 2002	Abortion Abortion Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...	6 March 2002	25th Amendment Bill, 2002	€2.6m
9 July 2002	Treaty of Nice Treaty of Nice The Treaty of Nice was signed by European leaders on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003. It amended the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Rome...	19 October 2002	26th Amendment Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to ratify the Treaty of Nice. It was effected by the Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 2002, which was approved by referendum on 19 October 2002 and signed into law on 7 November of the same year...	€4.1m
22 April 2004	Citizenship	11 June 2004	27th Amendment Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland provided that children born on the island of Ireland to parents who were both non-nationals would no longer have a constitutional right to citizenship of the Republic of Ireland...	€3.1m
6 March 2008	Treaty of Lisbon Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....	12 June 2008	28th Amendment Bill, 2008	€5.0m
7 July 2009	Treaty of Lisbon	2 October 2009	28th Amendment	N/A
5 September 2011	Judges' Remuneration	27 October 2011	29th Amendment
13 September 2011	Oireachtas Oireachtas The Oireachtas , sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...  Inquiries	27 October 2011	30th Amendment Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2011 (Ireland) The Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2011 was a bill which, if enacted, would have amended the Constitution of Ireland "in order to provide for the...

On 6 March 2008, the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley

John Gormley

John Gormley is an Irish politician. He was the leader of the Irish Green Party from 2007 to 2011, and was a Teachta Dála for the Dublin South East constituency from 1997 to 2011. He served as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from 2007–11...

 established a referendum commission for the first referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon

Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....

. The minister did not restore the original remit of the commission – to outline arguments for and against the referendum – however during the campaign against the first Treaty of Nice referendum by the Green Party

Green Party (Ireland)

The Green Party is a green political party in Ireland. It was founded as the Ecology Party of Ireland in 1981 by Dublin teacher Christopher Fettes. The party became the Green Alliance in 1983 and in 1987 was renamed to its current title in English...

, Gormley had praised the role of the commission in advancing the pros and cons of the treaty.