The Dáil at a glance

What the Dáil is

Ireland's parliament is called the Oireachtas. It has three parts: the President, the Dáil and the Seanad. Only the Oireachtas can make laws.

The Dáil is the House the public elects directly, and the more powerful of the two. It chooses the Taoiseach, it has the final say on laws (the Seanad can delay a bill but not stop it), and Money Bills, which deal only with taxes, public spending or borrowing, have to start there.

Who sits there

The members of the Dáil are called TDs, short for Teachta Dála, which means a deputy of the Dáil. In debates they call each other "Deputy". There are 174 of them in the 34th Dáil.

They are elected from 43 constituencies. Each constituency elects three, four or five TDs: 13 elect three, 15 elect four and 15 elect five. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference, 1, 2, 3 and so on. This system is called proportional representation by the single transferable vote, or PR-STV.

See all 174 TDs and the constituency map

How long a Dáil lasts

A general election has to be held at least every five years. That limit is set by law; the Constitution allows a longer one, up to seven. When the Dáil is dissolved, the election follows within 30 days, and each new Dáil takes the next number. The 34th Dáil first met on 18 December 2024, and that is where this archive begins.

Who does what

The Ceann Comhairle

The Ceann Comhairle chairs the Dáil. They call TDs to speak, keep order, put each question to the House and announce the result of votes. They are expected to be impartial, so they do not normally vote. If a vote is tied, whoever is in the chair has to cast the deciding vote. A Ceann Comhairle who wants to stay on as a TD is returned automatically at the next general election, without standing.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle is the deputy chair, and other TDs take turns in the chair too; the record lists them as the acting chair. On this site, speech from the chair is marked as such and is never counted as someone's speaking.

The Government

The Taoiseach is the head of the Government. The Dáil nominates them and the President appoints them. The Tánaiste is the deputy, and stands in for the Taoiseach when needed.

The Government itself has between 7 and 15 members, all ministers in charge of departments. The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance must be TDs. Ministers of State, sometimes called junior ministers, help the senior ministers with parts of their work. They are not members of the Government. The law sets a maximum number, which the Dáil raised from 20 to 23 in February 2025 (the Act that did it).

Parties, groups and whips

Most TDs belong to a party; some are independents. Small parties and independents can join together in a technical group, which gets the speaking rights of a party, such as Priority Questions. Each party has a whip, who organises its TDs for votes.

A sitting week

The Dáil usually sits from Tuesday to Thursday. The Business Committee agrees the week's business in advance, and on Tuesday the arrangements are put to the House for approval (the Order of Business). The details change week to week, but these are the regular slots:

How each of these works is in How questions work and How votes work.

See what the Dáil did on each sitting day

Recess

The Dáil takes breaks, called recesses: a long one over the summer, and shorter ones at Christmas, at Easter and around several bank holidays. The dates are set in a provisional calendar that can change. The home page of this site says whether the Dáil is sitting today, using the published schedule, and says "provisional" whenever it relies on that calendar.