Ireland

Ireland is a parliamentary republic: a small open economy on the Atlantic edge of Europe. The Taoiseach leads the government through a majority in the 160-seat Dáil Éireann. The live allocator uses Hare-quota proportional representation with largest remainders; ranked STV transfers are not yet simulated.

Government structure#

The Taoiseach is Ireland's head of government: equivalent to a Prime Minister. The Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) is a ceremonial, non-executive head of state with a 7-year term, max 2 terms per character. The Tánaiste is the deputy head of government, filled through cabinet appointment.

The Oireachtas is the bicameral national legislature. However, the Seanad Éireann is partly elected, partly appointed, and does not participate in the player legislative loop, so the legislature is mechanically treated as unicameral (only Dáil bills advance to enactment). The Dáil is the sole legislative chamber where player-contestable bills originate.

Oireachtas#

The Oireachtas consists of two chambers:

• Dáil Éireann: 160 TDs (Teachtaí Dála) allocated proportionally across multi-seat constituencies using a Hare quota and largest remainders. This is the primary legislative chamber and the source of the Taoiseach's authority. All 160 seats are contested each election cycle.
• Seanad Éireann: 60 senators (43 elected from vocational panels, 11 nominated by the Taoiseach, and 6 from universities). The Seanad is partly elected and partly appointed, and is not part of the player legislative loop. Bills do not require Seanad passage to enact: the Dáil is the sole legislative body.

Coalition threshold#

The coalition threshold is 81 seats (a bare majority of the 160-seat Dáil: 160 / 2 + 1). A party or coalition holding 81+ seats can form a government and propose a Taoiseach through a confidence vote among all TDs.

Minority government: any party or coalition chair holding a sufficient bloc of Dáil seats can propose a Taoiseach and call a confidence vote, even without 81. The Dáil votes the bid up or down.

Ireland has no single-party majority tradition: coalition government is the norm. The two major parties are Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, but neither typically governs alone. Coalitions typically include one of the major parties plus smaller partners (Labour, Greens, independents).

How Irish elections work#

Dáil elections currently use a generic Hare-quota largest-remainder allocator. This approximates proportional multi-seat results, but it does not model ranked ballots, surplus transfers, or eliminations. Wiki references to STV describe the real institution, not the live resolver.

• Primaries advance the top 3 candidates per party per region (same as the UK / JP / DE rule, not the US top-1 rule).
• All Dáil seats are contested in each cycle: no staggered classes.
• Snap elections are allowed: the Taoiseach can dissolve the Dáil and call an early election (mechanically similar to UK / JP / DE snap elections).
• No confidence votes: if the government loses Dáil confidence, the Taoiseach falls and government formation restarts.

Local government#

Ireland has a Local Council sub-national tier: 200 elected councillors representing NUTS-III planning regions. Councillors exercise delegated local-government functions and vote on regional legislation. Bills passed at the local level have regional policy effects.

Each region has a regional executive: the Cathaoirleach, using the same office as a Governor in other countries. The display label diverges per-region: Lord Mayor of Dublin (DUB), Lord Mayor of Cork (COR), Mayor of Limerick (LIM), Mayor of Galway (GAL), and Cathaoirleach elsewhere.

Presidential office (Uachtarán)#

The Uachtarán na hÉireann is a directly elected ceremonial head of state: distinct from the Taoiseach, who is the head of government. Key features:

Open the live office at Áras an Uachtaráin.

• 7-year term: the longest of any directly elected office in the game.
• 2-term lifetime limit per character: a character cannot be elected to a third term, even after a break.
• +3 actions per turn while in office.
• Party strength weight 0.5: the ceremonial presidency carries less partisan weight than the Taoiseach or TDs.

The President does not introduce legislation and has no veto. The office is a strategic prestige / action-bonus target rather than a legislative lever.

Key Irish mechanics#

Proportional lower-chamber allocator. Ireland's Dáil uses the same generic Hare-quota proportional allocator used by several multi-seat chambers. A future true-STV implementation would need ranked ballots and transfer rounds that the current resolver does not perform.

Unicameral legislative loop. Although the Oireachtas is bicameral in name, only the Dáil participates in the player legislative loop. The Seanad is advisory-only: it cannot block or amend bills in gameplay.

Coalition government by default. Ireland's two major parties rarely win an outright Dáil majority. Coalitions (Fine Gael + Labour, Fianna Fáil + Greens, etc.) are the standard form of government. The 81-seat threshold is the only hard number that matters for confidence.

Currency depends on era state. Ireland starts with the Irish pound in pre-euro presets and can display the euro after Eurozone adoption. Its configured central-bank office is the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, not an independently contested ECB presidency.

Social axis baseline −1.5. Ireland's social-axis position starts slightly libertarian (−1.5 on a −5…+5 scale), reflecting a permissive, socially liberal baseline. Drifts toward the social stance of enacted national laws over time.

Party creation routes through a charter. Founding a new party requires drafting a Party Charter co-signed by 3 human founders. IE-specific gates don't apply. Ireland requires 2 regions (no locked home state) × 1 NPP per region = 2 NPPs spawned on creation.

Career path for Irish players#

Ireland has no sub-national legislature equivalent to the US State Senate or UK Regional Council. The Local Council is a sub-national elected tier, but the first rung of national play is a Dáil seat.

Currency and economy#

Economic model#

Ireland has three seeded start years: 1953, 1991, and 2019 (the default), each with its own authored national baseline and regional tilts:

A 2019-start Ireland begins as a tech innovation economy: the same modern model as the US. A 1991-start Ireland begins as agrarian and modernizes over time through play. A 1953-start Ireland begins earlier still, in the protectionist, high-emigration economy that preceded both.

Key Ireland links#

• Cabinet Guide: every cabinet post, its metrics, and its actions
• Election Mechanics: Primary and general election rules
• Multi-Country Play: proportional vs FPTP systems, cross-border investments
• Core Systems: Turn structure, action economy
• Player Progression: Career ladder details
• International Organizations: EU / ECB shared institutions
• Referendums: the Northern Ireland reunification path and its Dáil consent bill

Living history#

The timeline below is written by the turn processor whenever a head-of-government transition or national-scope bill enactment happens in-game. Each entry is a real event from this save.

IE