Donegal County Council needs 'considerable work' to update electoral register

Major concerns have been expressed over the inaccuracy of the electoral register in Donegal.

A significant number of either false, duplicate, incorrect or redundant entries - possibly into the thousands in number - are on the Donegal register. Donegal has more people on the electoral register than the entire population that is eligible to be on the register.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin’s has published its first Oversight Report on Ireland’s Electoral Registers. It says that it is “deeply concerned” at legacy accuracy issues that exist on electoral registers across the country,

Donegal has recorded one of the lowest accuracy indicators of all the electoral registers in Ireland.

The commission says that Donegal’s numbers indicate “a high level of inaccuracies, particularly in the context of very low level of accuracy indicators”.

Donegal County Council has only collected dates of birth for 40.5 per cent of those on the register and eir codes from only 41.4 per cent of the register. In the case of both, the national average across 31  electoral registers is 72.4 per cent and 69.8 per cent.

Combined dates of birth and eir code is at a reported 28.8 per cent - which is also well below the average of 56 per cent.

Donegal County Council has the lowest levels for two of the accuracy indicators and is among the lowest for the other two.

The report said: “The very low level of accuracy indicators and the significantly greater number of people on the local register than are potentially eligible highlights the need for Donegal County Council to significantly increase the levels of accuracy indicators to support the identification of duplicate and redundant entries.”

Amongst issues noted by the council, a key concern were cases of duplicate applications being made by electors. This was a recurring issue in each electoral event in 2024.

This primarily related to existing electors unable to find themselves on checktheregister.ie and both new and existing electors not receiving an acknowledgement email, which resulted in numerous repeated applications.

Until the levels of accuracy are “significantly improved”, it will not be possible to assess the completeness of the Donegal electoral register, the report says. 

The indicators outline that Donegal County Council “appears to have considerable work to do to improve the overall quality of its electoral register. As in all cases, further analysis of the registers is required, including the carrying out of accuracy audits.”

It was reported that 495 entries were removed from the register between December 2022 and March 2024, primarily duplicate entries, deceased electors and people who had moved away. In 2024 as a whole, there were 2,994 deletions from and 695 updates to this register. 

Staff of the commission’s electoral operations team met separately with nine local authorities, including Donegal.

The issue goes back decades with people registered more than once in one or more local authority areas, people who have emigrated and people who have passed away remaining on the registers. 

The report recommends a plan for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the 31 local authorities to finally address this issue before the next round of electoral events in 2029. This should begin with audits of every electoral register in the country.

The report said: “Donegal County Council’s register has a considerable distance to go before accuracy indicators reach even current national averages, which also need to be improved. While acknowledging the substantial volume of applications processed since February 2023, this is a significant concern.”

The commission says that the level of prioritisation afforded to the electoral register “needs to be significantly improved”.

It said: “Insufficient efforts have been made to improve the overall quality of the electoral register which may be a result of a limited level of resourcing.

“In light of the quality of this register, based on information provided, it will not be possible to even attempt to estimate, with any degree of satisfaction, either the registration rate for the county, turnout at electoral events or the numbers of people who are not registered. This will only be possible when the quality of the register is significant improved before the start of the next electoral cycle in 2029.”

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A new Local Government Electoral Register System LGERS’ will come into effect in 2026 and the commission says that “considerable and sustained work on the quality of this register” will be required thereafter.

The report suggests that Donegal County Council and the Department must ensure that sufficient resources are provided to progress the recommendations.

It added: “It is the view of An Coimisiún that the priority given to the register by Donegal County Council must improve dramatically.”