1 - Start ~4 mins
You have already mapped where you have a say, and traced how a decision moves through your school. Today you step outside the school gates.
Who makes decisions for your county, and who makes them for the whole country? You will build the real structures of local and national government in Ireland, and name who answers to whom.
2 - Two Levels, Different Jobs ~6 mins
Ireland runs on two levels of democratic government, and they do different jobs.
National government deals with the whole country: laws, budgets, defence, foreign affairs, and national policy on education and health. The main bodies are Dáil Éireann, Seanad Éireann, the Government (the Taoiseach and Ministers), the President, and Government departments.
The Oireachtas is the national parliament: the President, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. Seanad Éireann is the second House; it reviews and amends bills from the Dáil.
Local government is your county or city council. It deals with planning, local roads, housing, libraries, parks and waste. Councillors are elected. A Chief Executive is appointed to run the council day to day.
Elected means voters choose you at the ballot box. Appointed means you are given the job.
Local government is not a mini version of national government. Your job next is to place who answers to whom, and who the voters actually choose. The board keeps a one-line role for each body while you work.
3 - Who Answers to Whom? ~18 mins
Open the interactive activity. The people are already in place.
Work with the person beside you. Read the relationship label on every link before you drop. Challenge mode bounces a wrong placement, so talk each link through first.
Seanad Éireann is on the board, not in the drag bank: remember it reviews Dáil bills and, with the Dáil and the President, makes up the Oireachtas.
When your tree is complete, answer the two prompts and be ready to explain one link out loud if asked.
Who answers to whom?
4 - Make Sense of It ~9 mins
Where did placements bounce, and what did that show?
Talk these through as a class:
- Name one decision only a local council makes.
- Name one decision only the Dáil or the Government makes.
- Why does putting the Government under the President get the structure wrong?
- The Oireachtas is the President, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. What does Seanad Éireann do with bills from the Dáil?
Local and national government both draw their authority from voters, but they are not the same job at different sizes. One looks after the county or city. The other looks after the country.
5 - What You Covered ~3 mins
You can now describe the structures of local and national government in Ireland.
You can say who is elected and who is appointed, explain who answers to whom, and give a clear example of the different jobs each level does.
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