The Irish Government

In Ireland, the government is a parliamentary democracy. The Head of the Government is the Taoiseach. The Tánaiste is the Deputy Prime Minister. Fifteen Government Departments exist in Ireland. The Taoiseach and the Ministers form together the Government under the Irish constitution, and they hold executive power.

The Oireachtas 

The Oireachtas Éireann is the legislature of Ireland. It is composed of the President of Ireland and of two houses.

The President of Ireland serves as head of state and is directly elected by the people. The current President, elected in 2011, is Michael D Higgins.  Presidents are elected for seven years, and can serve no more than two terms. The President has a largely ceremonial role.

The first house is the Dáil Éireann, the House of Representatives and the second house is the Seanad Éireann, the Senate. The houses of the Oireachtas sit in Leinster House in Dublin, an eighteenth-century ducal palace.

Ø The Dáil Éireann has 166 members. Members are directly elected at least once in every five years by the people of the Republic of Ireland under a system of proportional representation known as the single transferable vote.

Ø The Seanad Eireann has 60 members. Eleven are appointed by the Taoiseach (prime minister). The rest are elected from vocational panels and by national universities (University of Dublin, National University of Ireland…)

  The Seanad can initiate or revise legislation, but the Dáil can reject their amendments and proposed legislation.

Local Government 

Locally, there are 114 local authorities in Ireland.  They provide a large amount of services, such as housing, transport, water supply, waste management, education, health and welfare.