Political system of Ireland

The Head of State is the Taoiseach. His role is to accomplish the responsibilities as head of the Government. Ireland is a parliamentary democracy. The Tánaiste is the Deputy Prime Minister. There are 15 Government Departments , the Taoiseach and the Ministers collectively form the Government under the Irish constitution, and they hold executive power.

The Parliament is called the Oireachtas. There are two Houses of Parliament: Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (Senate). The Dáil has 166 members known as Teachtaí Dála (TD), who are elected using proportional representation with a single transferrable vote (PR-STV).

Elections take place at least every five years. The main political parties represented in the Dáil are Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Labour. The Seanad has 60 members, eleven of whom are nominated by the Taoiseach. The rest are elected from vocational panels and by national universities.

The president of Ireland serves as head of state and is directly elected by the people. Presidents are elected for seven years, and can serve no more than two terms.