The ethics watchdog warned that the Electoral Act 1997 is “now over 20 years old and requires modernisation”.

The commission’s annual report for 2018 includes a number of recommendations for change to the Ethics in Public Office Acts, which would “serve to clarify and strengthen the provisions of the legislation administered by the commission”.

The commissioned processed 29 complaints under the Ethics Acts in 2018, completed one preliminary inquiry, and held four investigation hearings, with three reports published during the year. These were in addition to 80 investigations and six reports into non-compliance with law provisions regarding tax compliance.

Under the Electoral Act, the commission supervised election finance for the presidential election held in October 2018. A report on the presidential election will be published in 2019. The commission also published annual statutory reports on the Seanad by-election held in April, reports on donations to political parties, TDs, Senators and MEPs, political party accounts and accounting units.