Politics of the Republic of Ireland

The state operates under the Constitution of Ireland (Irish: Bunreacht na hÉireann) which was adopted in 1937 by means of a plebiscite. The constitution falls within the liberal democratic tradition. It defines the organs of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. The Constitution can only be amended by means of a referendum. Important constitutional referendums have concerned issues such as abortion, the status of the Catholic Church, divorce, European Union and same-sex marriage.

Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin, official residence of the President of Ireland

The head of state is the President of Ireland. In keeping with the state's parliamentary system of government, the President exercises a mainly ceremonial role but does possess certain specific powers. The presidency is open to all Irish citizens who are at least 35. They are directly elected by secret ballot under the alternative vote. A candidate may be nominated for election as president by no fewer than 20 members of the Oireachtas or by four or more of Ireland's 31 County and City Councils. A retiring President may nominate themselves as a candidate for re-election. If only one valid candidate is nominated for election, for example if there is consensus among the political parties to nominate a single candidate, it is unnecessary to proceed to a ballot and that candidate is deemed elected. The President is elected to a seven-year term of office and no person may serve more than two terms.

In carrying out certain of their constitutional functions, the President is aided by the Council of State. There is no Vice-President in Ireland. If for any reason the President is unable to carry out their functions, or if the Office of President is vacant, the duties of the President are carried out by the Presidential Commission.

The President may not veto bills passed by the Oireachtas but may, after consultation with the Council of State, refer them to the Supreme Court of Ireland for a ruling on whether they comply with the constitution. The President may refuse a request of the Taoiseach for a dissolution of Dáil Éireann, although no request for a dissolution had been refused.

Leinster House in Dublin, seat of the houses of the Oireachtas

Article 15 of the Constitution of Ireland established the Oireachtas as the national parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the President of Ireland and two elected houses: Dáil Éireann (the House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (the Senate). As the Oireachtas also consists of the President, the title of the two law-making houses is the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Dáil is by far the dominant house of the legislature.

Government Buildings in Dublin

Executive authority is exercised by a cabinet known simply as the Government. Article 28 of the Constitution states that the Government may consist of no less than seven and no more than fifteen members, namely the Taoiseach (prime minister), the Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and up to thirteen other ministers. The Minister for Finance is the only other position named in the Constitution. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President, after being nominated by Dáil Éireann. The remaining ministers are nominated by the Taoiseach and appointed by the President following their approval by the Dáil. The Government must enjoy the confidence of Dáil Éireann and, in the event that they cease to enjoy the support of the lower house, the Taoiseach must either resign or request the President to dissolve the Dáil, in which case a general election follows.

The Four Courts in Dublin

Ireland is a common law jurisdiction. The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court established by the Constitution and other lower courts established by statute law. Judges are appointed by the President after being nominated by the Government and can be removed from office only for misbehaviour or incapacity, and then only by resolution of both houses of the Oireachtas. The final court of appeal is the Supreme Court, which consists of the Chief Justice, nine ordinary judges and, ex officio the Presidents of the Court of Appeal and the High Court. The Supreme Court rarely sits as a full bench and normally hears cases in chambers of three, five or seven judges.

The courts established by the constitution have the power of judicial review and may declare to be invalid both laws and acts of the state which are repugnant to the constitution.

The Government, through the civil and public services and state-sponsored bodies, is a significant employer in the state; these three sectors are often called the public sector. Management of these various bodies vary, for instance in the civil service there will be clearly defined routes and patterns whilst among public services a sponsoring minister or the Minister for Finance may appoint a board or commission. Commercial activities, where the state involves itself, are typically through the state-sponsored bodies which are usually organised in a similar fashion to private companies.

A 2005 report on public sector employment, showed that in June 2005 the numbers employed in the public sector stood at 350,100; of these by sector they were 38,700 (civil service), 254,100 (public service) and 57,300 (state-sponsored). The total workforce of the state was 1,857,400 that year, thus the public sector represents approximately 20% of the total workforce.[2]

Article 28A of the constitution of Ireland provides a constitutional basis for local government. The Oireachtas is empowered to establish the number, size and powers of local authorities by law. Under Article 28A, members of local authorities must be directly elected by voters at least once every five years.

Local government in Ireland is governed by a series of Local Government Acts, beginning with the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. The most significant of these is the Local Government Act 2001, which established a two-tier structure of local government. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 abolished the bottom tier, the town councils, leaving 31 local authorities. There are 26 County Councils (County Dublin having been divided into three council areas), 3 City Councils (Dublin, Cork and Galway), and 2 City and County Councils (Limerick and Waterford).

A number of political parties are represented in the Dáil and coalition governments are common. The Irish electoral system has been historically characterised as a two and a half party system, with two large catch-all parties, this being the centre-right Fine Gael and the centrist Fianna Fáil, dominating, and the “half-party,” being Labour. This changed after the 2011 general election, following the large drop in support for Fianna Fáil and the rise in support for other parties. Ireland's political landscape changed dramatically after the 2020 general election, when Sinn Féin made gains to become the joint-largest party in the Dáil, making Ireland a three party system.

Fianna Fáil, a traditionally Irish republican party founded in 1927 by Éamon de Valera, is the joint-largest party in the Dáil and considered centrist in Irish politics. It first formed a government on the basis of a populist programme of land redistribution and national preference in trade and republican populism remains a key part of its appeal. It has formed government seven times since Ireland gained independence: 1932–1948, 1951–1954, 1957–1973, 1977–1981, 1982, 1987–1994, and 1997–2011. Fianna Fáil was the largest party in the Dáil from 1932 to 2011. It lost a huge amount of support in the 2011 general election, going from 71 to 20 seats, its lowest ever. Its loss in support was mainly due to its handling of the 2008 economic recession. It has since regained some support, but is yet to recover to its pre-2011 levels.

The other joint-largest party is Sinn Féin, established in its current form in 1970. The original Sinn Féin played a huge role in the Irish War of Independence and the First Dáil. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil trace their origins to that party. The current-day party has been historically linked to the Provisional IRA. The party is a Republican party which takes a more left wing stance on economics and social policy than the Labour Party. Sinn Féin received the highest percentage vote in the 2020 general election.

The third-largest party in the Dáil is Fine Gael, which has its origins in the pro-treaty movement of Michael Collins in the Irish Civil War. Traditionally the party of law and order, it is associated with strong belief in pro-enterprise and reward. Despite expressions of Social Democracy by previous leader Garrett Fitzgerald, today, it remains a Christian democratic, economically liberal party along European lines, with a strongly pro-European outlook. Fine Gael was formed out of a merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the Blueshirts. In recent years it has generally been associated with a liberal outlook. It has formed government in the periods 1922–1932 (Cumann na nGaedheal), 1948–1951, 1954–1957, 1973–1977, 1981–1982, 1982–1987, 1994–1997, and 2011 to present. Fine Gael made massive gains at the 2011 general election, winning 78 seats, its highest ever.

The fourth-largest party in the Dáil is the Green Party, which made significant gains at the 2020 general election.

The joint-fifth largest party in the Dáil is the centre-left Labour Party which was founded by James Connolly and Jim Larkin in 1912. Labour have formal links with the trade union movement and have governed in seven coalition governments – six led by Fine Gael and one by Fianna Fáil. This role as a junior coalition partner has led to Labour being classed as the half party of Ireland's two and a half party system. Labour won a record number of seats, 37, at the 2011 general election, becoming the second-largest party for the first time. It went into coalition with Fine Gael, who also won a record number of seats. Labour was Ireland's third party or “half-party” up until the 2016 general election, when it suffered the worst general election defeat in its history, gaining just 7 seats. A lot of this was due to its being in government with Fine Gael, who introduced austerity measures to deal with the economic crisis.

The other fifth-largest Dáil party is the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats are a relatively new party and made gains at the 2020 general election.

The Solidarity–People Before Profit electoral alliance, consisting of the Solidarity and People Before Profit currently occupy the 6th largest grouping within Dáil Éireann. Formed in 2015, the group represents a left-wing, socialist viewpoint.

Other parties and political alliances represented in the Dáil after the 2020 general election are Independents 4 Change and Aontú.

The Independent Alliance, a loose alliance of independents formed in 2015, returned 6 TDs after the 2016 general election. 5 of the 6 helped elect Enda Kenny as Taoiseach again after the election, and have since entered government in various forms. Independent Alliance is defunct as of 2020.

Party representation

Party		Representation (as of Jan. 2021)
		Oireachtas		Local councils	European Parliament
		Dáil Éireann	Seanad Éireann
	Fianna Fáil	37	20	276	2
	Sinn Féin[ni 1]	37	4	80	1
	Fine Gael	35	16	254	5
	Green[ni 2]	12	4	45	2
	Labour	6	5	57	0
	Social Democrats	6	0	19	0
	Solidarity–PBP[ni 3]	5	0	11	0
	Aontú[ni 4]	1	0	3	0
	Human Dignity Alliance	0	1	0	0
	Inds. 4 Change	0	0	3	2
	Workers and Unemployed Action	0	0	1	0
	Workers' Party	0	0	1	0
	Kerry Independent Alliance	0	0	1	0
	Republican Sinn Féin	0	0	1	0

1. Sinn Féin also has 7 members of the UK House of Commons, 27 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 105 local councillors in Northern Ireland.
2. The Green Party also has 2 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and 8 local councillors in Northern Ireland.
3. People Before Profit also has 1 member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and 5 local councillors in Northern Ireland.
4. Aontú also has 2 local councillors in Northern Ireland.

33rd Irish general election – 8 February 2020[3][4][5]

Party		Leader	First-preference votes			Seats
			Votes	% FPv[lower-alpha 8]	Swing (pp)	Cand. [7]	2016	Out.	Elected 2020	Change
	Sinn Féin	Mary Lou McDonald	535,595	24.5	10.7	42	23	22	37 / 160 (23%)	14
	Fianna Fáil	Micheál Martin	484,320	22.2	2.2	84	44	45	37 / 160 (23%)	6
	Fine Gael	Leo Varadkar	455,584	20.9	4.7	82	49	47	35 / 160 (22%)	14
	Green	Eamon Ryan	155,700	7.1	4.4	39	2	3	12 / 160 (8%)	10
	Labour	Brendan Howlin	95,588	4.4	2.2	31	7	7	6 / 160 (4%)	1
	Social Democrats	Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall	63,404	2.9	0.1	20	3	2	6 / 160 (4%)	3
	Solidarity–PBP	Collective leadership	57,420	2.6	1.3	36	6	6	5 / 160 (3%)	1
	Aontú	Peadar Tóibín	41,614	1.9	new party	26	New	1	1 / 160 (0.6%)	1
	Inds. 4 Change	None	8,421	0.4	1.1	4	4	1	1 / 160 (0.6%)	3
	Irish Freedom	Hermann Kelly	5,495	0.3	new party	11	New	0	0 / 160 (0%)	-
	Renua	Vacant	5,473	0.3	1.9	11	0	0	0 / 160 (0%)	-
	National Party	Justin Barrett	4,773	0.2	new party	10	New	0	0 / 160 (0%)	-
	Irish Democratic	Ken Smollen	2,611	0.1	0.1	1	0	0	0 / 160 (0%)	-
	Workers' Party	Michael Donnelly	1,195	0.1	0.1	4	0	0	0 / 160 (0%)	-
	United People	Jeff Rudd	43	0.0	new party	1	New	0	0 / 160 (0%)	-
	Independent	—	266,529	12.2	3.7[lower-alpha 9]	125	19[lower-alpha 9]	22[lower-alpha 9]	19 / 160 (12%)	0
	Ceann Comhairle	Seán Ó Fearghaíl	N/A	N/A	N/A	1	1	1	1 / 160 (0.6%)	0
Spoilt votes				—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Total			2,183,765	100%	—	552[7]	158	157	160	2
Registered voters/Turnout				62.9%	—	—	—	—	—	—

Ireland's foreign relations are substantially influenced by its membership of the European Union, although bilateral relations with the United States and United Kingdom are also important to the country. It is one of the group of smaller nations in the EU, and has traditionally followed a non-aligned foreign policy.

Northern Ireland has been a major factor in Irish politics since the island of Ireland was divided between Northern Ireland and what is now the Republic in 1920. The creation of Northern Ireland led to conflict between northern nationalists (mostly Roman Catholic) who seek unification with the Republic and Unionists (mostly Protestant) who opposed British plans for Irish Home Rule and wished for Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. After the formation of Northern Ireland in 1921 following its opt out from the newly formed Irish Free State, many Roman Catholics and Republicans were discriminated against. The abolition of Proportional Representation and the gerrymandering of constituency boundaries led to Unionists being over-represented at Stormont and at Westminster. Even James Craig who was prime minister of Northern Ireland boasted of his Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People. In the 1960s NICRA was set up to end discrimination between Catholics and Protestants. There was a massive backlash to this from sections of the Unionist community. This conflict exploded into violence in the late sixties with the beginning of the Troubles, involving groups such as the Provisional IRA, loyalist paramilitaries, the police and the British army, the latter originally drafted in to protect Catholic communities from loyalist violence. These clashes were to result in the suspension of the Stormont Parliament and unsuccessful efforts by the British Government to encourage a power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland which were only realised following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The Troubles caused thousands of deaths in Northern Ireland but also spilled over into bombings and acts of violence in England and the Republic.

Since its foundation it has been the stated long-term policy of governments of what is now the Republic to bring an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland and to bring about a united Ireland. Northern Ireland has also, in the past, often been a source of tension between the Irish Government and the government of the United Kingdom. To find a solution to the Troubles the Irish Government became a partner in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

While Sinn Féin have long organised in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, Fianna Fáil have recently opened a cumann (branch) in Derry and begun recruiting members at Queen's University, Belfast although both are extremely small.

• Ireland
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• History of Ireland
• Elections in the Republic of Ireland
• List of Dáil by-elections
• Politics of Northern Ireland
• Dáil constituencies

• John Coakley & Michael Gallagher (Editors) Politics in the Republic of Ireland (Routledge, 2004)[9]
• Sean Dooney & John O'Toole Irish Government Today (Gill & Macmillan Ltd., 1998)
• Neil Collins & Terry Cradden Irish Politics Today (Manchester University Press, 2001)
• Noel Whelan Politics, Elections and the Law (Blackhall Publishing, 2000)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Politics of the Republic of Ireland.

• ElectionsIreland.org – Irish election results from 1920 to today.