1. Have you ever gone to a polling station?

2. Your parents may go to your schooland vote in a booth like these….the individual booths mean they can vote in privacy. Type equation here.

3. They cast their vote on a sheet called a ballot paper which they receive in the post beforehand.They will number the boxes next to the name of each candidate in order of preference(i.e.. 1 is their favourite, two their next favourite, etc.)

4. At the end of the day, all of the votes are counted. Any ballot papers which are not filled in correctly (e.g. if someone used ticks and crosses instead of numbers) and those that contain graffiti are not included. These are called “spoiled votes”.

5. The person – or candidate – with the most votes is elected.

6. In Ireland there are two main types of elections – local and national elections.

7. Local elections are for representatives on town and county councils. Can you name any members of your town or county council? Why do you think they were elected?

8. Local councils deal with housing, rubbish collection, schools, sports centres, care for those who need support and other local services

9. They attend meetings and make decisions for those in their local community.

10. Sometimes the people who elected them agree with their decisions, but sometimes they do not.

11. The other type of elections we have are national elections.We elect members of parliament to represent us in our national government.Those elected are called T.D.s and represent us in the Dáil.

12. By law, a General Election to DáilÉireann must be held at least once every five years. For electoral purposes, the country is divided into areas known as constituencies, each of which elects either three, four or five Members. Under the Constitution there must be at least one Member for every 20,000 to 30,000 people and at present there are 166 Members representing 43 constituencies.

13. A day in the Dáil…. DáilÉireann normally meets in plenary session on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. A typical day's work for a Deputy in DáilÉireann includes: researching and preparing speeches for debates on social, economic, financial and budgetary issues drafting amendments to and examining proposals for new legislation contributing to debates on Bills and other important matters voting on issues in the House, attending Question Time participating in the proceedings of any of 19 Committees making either oral or written representations on behalf of constituents to Ministers or Government Departments

14. Some of the issues debated in the Dáil….Can you think of any others?

15. Can you identify any of these current T.D.s?