[1][2] In March 2021 it was announced that Art O'Leary, upon completion in June 2021 of his seven-year term as Secretary General to the President, would be appointed to work on the preparatory institutional and administrative arrangements for the commission, pending its formal establishment.

[15] After the 2011 general election, the Fine Gael and Labour parties formed a coalition government whose programme included a commitment to establish an electoral commission.

[16] Such a commission was also recommended in the Constitutional Convention's 2013 report on the system of elections to Dáil Éireann (lower house of the Oireachtas),[17] which was also endorsed the government.

[25] After the 2016 general election, a minority coalition government was formed by Fine Gael and Independent TDs with confidence and supply support from Fianna Fáil.

[35] Negotiations after the February 2020 general election led to the formation in June of a Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Green coalition, whose programme for government promised an electoral commission by the end of 2021.

[37] The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage produced the general scheme of an Electoral Reform Bill, which was approved by the cabinet on 30 December 2020[38] and published on 8 January 2021.

[39] The scheme was submitted for pre-legislative scrutiny to an Oireachtas Joint Committee, which had public meetings with invited parties between 23 January and 22 June and issued its report in August.

[45][41] Academics addressing a pre-legislative scrutiny meeting said the bill lacked ambition and the commission's structure left it "little room for expansion" to new activities.