Oireachtas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Houses | |
| History | |
| Established | 29 December 1937 (Modern form) |
| Preceded by | Irish Free State Oireachtas |
| Leadership | |
| Structure | |
| Seats |
|
 | |
political groups | Current Composition Government (91)
Supported by (4)
Opposition (78)
|
 | |
political groups | Current Composition Government (36)
Opposition (24)
|
Joint committees |
|
Length of term | Not exceeding 5 years |
| Authority | Articles 15−27, Constitution of Ireland |
| Salary | |
| Elections | |
| Proportional representation (single transferable vote) | |
| Indirect election | |
Last election | 29 November 2024 |
Last election | 30 January 2025 |
Next general election | By 2030 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Leinster House,Kildare Street, Dublin | |
| Website | |
| www | |
| Constitution | |
| Constitution of Ireland | |
| Rules | |
| Footnotes | |
| |
 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||
Administrative geography | ||||||||
TheOireachtas (/ˈɛrəktəs/EH-rək-təs;[2]Irish:[ˈɛɾʲaxt̪ˠəsˠ]), sometimes referred to asOireachtas Éireann, is thebicameralparliament ofIreland.[3] The Oireachtas consists of thepresident of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (Irish:Tithe an Oireachtais):[4] alower house calledDáil Éireann and anupper house calledSeanad Éireann.
The houses of the Oireachtas sit inLeinster House inDublin, an eighteenth-centuryducalpalace. The directly elected Dáil is the more powerful of the houses of the Oireachtas.
The wordoireachtas comes from theIrish wordairecht/oireacht ("deliberative assembly of freemen; assembled freemen; assembly, gathering; patrimony, territory"), ultimately from the wordairig ("freeman").[5] Its first recorded use as the name of a legislative body was within theIrish Free State.
Dáil Éireann is directly elected underuniversal suffrage of all Irish citizens who are residents and at least eighteen years old; non-Irish citizens may be enfranchised by law, which currently extends to British citizens. By law, a Dáil term may last no longer than five years; however, the house can be dissolved by the president at any time at the request of theTaoiseach (head of government). Dáil elections use theelectoral system ofproportional representation by means of asingle transferable vote. The Dáil has 174 members.
The Seanad is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members selected in a number of different ways. There are 60 senators: 43 are elected by councillors and parliamentarians, 11 are appointed by the Taoiseach, and six are elected by twouniversity constituencies.
The president is directly elected once every seven years, and may serve a maximum of two terms; where there is only one candidate for president, no ballot will be taken, and the candidate will be deemed elected at the close of nominations.
To become law, abill must first be approved by both the Dáil and in most circumstances the Seanad (although the Dáil can override a Seanad refusal to pass a bill), and then signed into law by the president. Bills to amend the Constitution must also be approved by the people in a referendum prior to being presented to the President. In most circumstances, the president is in effect obliged to sign all laws approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas, although the president has the power torefer most bills to the Supreme Court for a ruling on constitutionality. The powers of the Seanad are in effect limited to delay rather than veto. It is the Dáil, therefore, that is the supreme tier of the Irish legislature. The generalenacting formula forActs of the Oireachtas is: "Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:—", for an act with a preamble this enacting formula is, instead, "Be it therefore enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:—".
The Oireachtas has exclusive power to:
The Oireachtas has a number ofjoint committees that include members of both houses. There are currently fifteen of these:
Oireachtas has been the title of two parliaments inIrish history: the current Oireachtas of Ireland, since 1937, and, immediately before that, theOireachtas of the Irish Free State of 1922 to 1937.
The earliest parliament in Ireland was theParliament of Ireland, which was founded in the thirteenth century as the supreme legislative body of the lordship of Ireland and was in existence until 1801. This parliament governed the English-dominated part of Ireland, which at first was limited to Dublin and surrounding cities, but later grew to include the entire island. The Irish Parliament was, from the passage ofPoynings' Law in 1494 until its repeal in 1782, subordinate to the English, and later British,Parliament. This Parliament consisted of theKing of Ireland, who was the same person as the King of England, aHouse of Lords and aHouse of Commons. After theConstitution of 1782 was passed by both the Irish Parliament and theParliament of Great Britain, the Irish Parliament had increased legislative and judicial independence from theKingdom of Great Britain and had greater control over theRoyal Irish Army. It was known as Grattan's Parliament afterHenry Grattan, leader of theIrish Patriot Party. In 1800 the Irish Parliament approved its own abolition when it enacted theAct of Union, which came into effect from 1 January 1801.
The next legislature to exist in Ireland came into being in 1919. This was aunicameral parliament established byIrish republicans, known simply asDáil Éireann. This revolutionary Dáil was notionally a legislature for the whole island of Ireland. In 1920, in parallel to the Dáil, theBritish government created ahome rule legislature called theParliament of Southern Ireland. However, this parliament was boycotted by most Irish politicians. It was made up of the King, theHouse of Commons of Southern Ireland and theSenate of Southern Ireland. The Parliament of Southern Ireland was formally abolished in 1922, with the establishment of the Oireachtas under theConstitution of the Irish Free State.
The Oireachtas of the Irish Free State consisted of theKing (represented by aGovernor-General) and two houses: Dáil Éireann (described as a "Chamber of Deputies") and Seanad Éireann. However, theFree State Senate was abolished in May 1936 and the role of the monarch was removed in December 1936. The modern Oireachtas came into being in December 1937, on theadoption of the Constitution of Ireland.
The first Oireachtas radio and television broadcasts were ofceremonial addresses from dignitaries, beginning with that ofJohn F. Kennedy during his 1963 state visit.[7] Regular radio broadcasting of edited Oireachtas proceedings began in October 1986, althoughbudget statements had already been broadcast live.[8] Television coverage of Dáil, Seanad, and committee proceedings began in 1990, 1991, and 1993 respectively.[9] Since 2005 the proceedings of both houses have been made available over the internet byHEAnet and theeDemocracy Unit of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas.[10]
Houses of the Oireachtas Channel (publicly known as Oireachtas TV) is a digital television channel in Ireland.[11] It broadcasts Committee and Houses and other parliament proceedings following its establishment under theBroadcasting Act 2009.[12][13] On 15 November 2011, it began broadcasting a pilot service onUPC Ireland. On 22 September 2014, the Houses launched the dedicated television channel Oireachtas TV, bringing unfiltered access to the parliamentary process to over one million households nationwide. The service is available free of charge on UPC Channel 207 and Sky Channel 574.[14]
In 2012, the Oireachtas launched its first e-consultation.[15]
On 28 June 2008, the first Houses of the Oireachtas family day was held.[16] This initiative by theCeann Comhairle ofDáil Éireann,John O'Donoghue and theCathaoirleach ofSeanad Éireann,Pat Moylan aimed to increase public awareness in the work of the Houses of the Oireachtas. It included tours of both chambers of the Oireachtas, lectures on the history of Oireachtas, historic political speeches recited by actors and a hot air balloon – commemorating the balloon flight which took place in 1785 from Leinster Lawn. The Oireachtas family day took place again in 2009,[17] but it has not been held since then.[18]
Although, as adopted in 1937, Article 3 of the constitution asserted the "right of the parliament and government established by this constitution to exercise jurisdiction" over the whole of Ireland, it also provided that pending the "re-integration of the national territory"[19] Acts of the Oireachtas would not apply to Northern Ireland. Therefore, no serious attempts have been made for the representation of Northern Ireland in the Dáil. As Taoiseach,Éamon de Valera, while a staunch opponent of partition, and who had been elected to represent a Northern constituency in theFirst Dáil, did not pursue the idea of seats in the Dáil for Northern Ireland, on the grounds that this would amount to representation "without taxation or responsibility".[20] Beginning withSeamus Mallon in 1982, one or more from Northern Ireland have been included among the elevenSenators nominated by the Taoiseach after most elections.
Sinn Féin has advocated that Northern IrelandMLAs,MPs, andMEPs should have the right to participate in Dáil debates, if not vote.[21] In 2005 the Taoiseach,Bertie Ahern, proposed that Northern Ireland MPs should be able to address acommittee of the whole Dáil. However,Fine Gael, theLabour Party, and Ahern's coalition partners, theProgressive Democrats, all opposed the idea,[22] as did theGreen Party, theSocialist Party and some Oireachtas members fromFianna Fáil.[23] Only Sinn Féin, the party that stood to gain most from the proposal, supported it, while the more moderateSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) described it as a step forward.[24] The proposal was also criticised widely in the media, with an editorial inThe Irish Times, declaring that: "The overwhelming democratic imperative is that the institutions of this State should represent and serve the people of the State."[22] From 2011, Northern Ireland MEPs had the same automatic right as MEPs from the Republic to participate in meetings of the Seanad's European committee, whereas other MEPs require an invitation.[25] This ended in 2020 when the United Kingdom left the EU, which consequently meant all UK MEPs left office.
While each house is empowered to organise its own business, they have always co-operated in practical matters arising from the fact that they share Leinster House as a common building complex. TheHouses of the Oireachtas Commission was established by statute in 2003 to provide a formal structure for this, which was previously done by a joint committee. Non-political support staff, such as ushers and the English–Irish translation staff, are employed by this Commission and treated as part of theCivil Service of the State. The Commission'schairperson andchief executive are theCeann Comhairle andclerk of the Dáil respectively; other members are theCathaoirleach of the Seanad, one appointed by theMinister for Finance, four by the Dáil, and three by the Seanad.[26][27] The Commission, through the translation department, is responsible for periodic updates toAn Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the official standard form of theIrish language.[28]
