Houses of the Oireachtas Commission
The primary function of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is to provide for the running of the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is the governing body which oversees the delivery of services to the Houses of the Oireachtas, their Members and members of the public by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. This includes ensuring the proper functioning of the Oireachtas TV Broadcasting Unit.
The Commission was established in 2004 as a corporate body. It is independent in the performance of its functions, and has no role in relation to parliamentary business or procedure.
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission has 11 members and is chaired by the Ceann Comhairle, who is chair of Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament). Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission serve in a corporate capacity and do not represent their parties. The Commission operates on the general principle that it seeks to support the Houses and all Members equally in carrying out their role as elected representatives.
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission comprises:
The Chairman of Dáil Éireann;
The Chairman of Seanad Éireann;
The Secretary General of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service;
A Member of one of the Houses of the Oireachtas appointed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, known as the Minister’s representative;
Four ordinary members appointed by the Dáil;
Three ordinary members appointed by the Seanad.
Other responsibilities of the Commission include:
Appointing the Clerk of the Dáil and Secretary General of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service;
Overseeing the expenditure of the Houses, paying all salaries and expenses for members and staff, and keeping and publishing annual accounts;
Employing civil servants to staff the Service and exercising functions in relation to staff appointments, performance and discipline, through the Secretary General;
Producing three-yearly strategic plans, annual reports, annual estimates and other information;
Deciding on secretarial facilities to be provided to Members and parliamentary parties;
Exercising certain legal functions, including participation in proceedings where necessary, and arranging for legal advice;
Preparing guidelines for Members on the use of publicly funded services and facilities following a dissolution of Dáil Éireann;
Providing translation services from one official language into the other in respect of Acts of the Oireachtas.
Management, operation and maintenance of the television facilities and digital recording systems for Oireachtas TV is handled by Pi Communications, a video production company who specialize in producing promotional videos & commercial content.
Business Form
State (public funding)
Business Sectors
N/A
Individual Owner
Other TV Outlets
Oireachtas TV
Dáil TV
Seanad TV
Other Online Outlets
Oireachtas TV Live
General Information
Founding Year
2004
Founder
The Irish Government
Contact
Office of the Commission and Secretary General
Leinster House
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
Phone: +353 (0) 1 618 3000
Email: commission@oireachtas.ie
Website:www.oireachtas.ie
Management
Executive Board
Ceann Comhairle (Chairperson of the Houses of the OIreachtas Commission) - Seán Ó Fearghaíl is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as the Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann since March 2016. He has been a Teachta Dála for the Kildare South constituency since 2002. Ó Fearghaíl comes from a farming background and was a Senator for the Agricultural Panel from 2000 to 2002. He has also been a vocal supporter of Chinese government policy in the Dáil, and has reportedly praised their human rights record, and cautioned TD’s and Senators against acknowledging Taiwan as an independent state, as this could damage Irelands diplomatic and business relations with China.
Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireannm (Deputy Chairperson of the Houses of the OIreachtas Commission) - Jerry Buttimer is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann since December 2022. He has served as a Senator for the Labour Panel since 2016. He served as Leas-Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann from July 2020 to August 2020, but resigned following his involvement in the Oireachtas Golf Society scandal ("golfgate"), in which Buttimer and 80 others attended a golf function and dinner in breach of government COVID-19 guidelines. He was Leader of the Seanad from 2016 to 2020 and Leader of Fine Gael in the Seanad from 2016 to 2020. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork South-Central constituency from 2011 to 2016. He was the first chair of Fine Gael LGBT. Following, Buttimer resigned as Leas-Cathaoirleach on 21 August 2020.
Secretary General (Chief Executive of the Houses of the OIreachtas Commission) - Peter Finnegan joined the Houses of the Oireachtas Service in January 1997 and was appointed Clerk of the Dáil on 13 January 2016. He is responsible for Oireachtas Committees, Broadcasting and Communications, and Library and Research Services in the Houses of the Oireachtas.Peter previously served in the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Education and Skills, Department of Finance, Department of Social Protection, and Office of Public Works.
Non-Executive Board
Minister’s representative - Francis Noel Duffy is the Green Party TD for Dublin South West , and former Councillor for Firhouse-Bohernabreena in South Dublin County Council. Francis is the Green Party Spokesperson for Housing. Before his election to Dáil Éireann, Francis was a lecturer at the Dublin School of Architecture, with a background in environmental science and sustainable building. He is married to the Green Party Deputy Leader and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin.
Seanad Member - Paddy Burke is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel since 1993. He previously served as Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann from 2011 to 2016 and Leas-Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann from 2002 to 2011. Following his involvement in the Oireachtas Golf Society Scandal ("Golfgate") in August 2020, Burke was one of six senators who lost the party whip in the Senate as punishment for their actions. The party unanimously.voted to restore the whip to Burke in January 2021.
Dáil Member - Jennifer Murnane O'Connor is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a TD for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency since the 2020 general election. She previously served as a Senator for the Labour Panel from 2016 from 2020. She is the daughter of former Carlow County Councillor Jimmy Murnane, who served on the local council for several years. She was co-opted to Carlow Urban District Council in 1999, following her father's retirement. She topped the polls for both for the Urban and County Council at the following elections.
Dáil Member - Louise O'Reilly is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a TD for the Dublin Fingal constituency since the 2016 general election. O'Reilly describes herself as being "born a Republican Socialist" because of her families' involvement in trade unionism. Her grandfather was a shop steward for the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union while her grandmother did the same for the Irish Women Workers' Union. Her father Mick O’Reilly was also a trade union official, and was a member of the Connolly Youth Movement, the youth wing of the Communist Party of Ireland, before joining the Labour Party, to which the union he worked for was affiliated. O'Reilly worked as an organiser with the SIPTU trade union for a decade before her entrance into politics, and served for 10 years as a member of the Public Services Committee for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
Seanad Member - Ned O'Sullivan is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as a Senator for the Labour Panel since July 2007. He was a member of Listowel Town Council from 1985 to 2007 and Kerry County Council from 1991 to 2007, and worked as a teacher at primary and secondary level in Dublin, Offaly and Kerry before taking over his family's menswear business in Listowel. In June 2011, it was revealed that 3,600 premium line votes from a phone in Leinster House at a cost of €2,600 to the Irish taxpayer helped Michael Healy-Rae win Celebrities Go Wild in 2007. O'Sullivan admitted making "around a dozen" calls and texts to support Healy-Rae after being asked to do so by Healy-Rae's campaign manager.
Dáil Member - Jennifer Whitmore is an Irish Social Democrats politician who has been a TD for the Wicklow constituency since the 2020 general election. Whitmore has worked in both local and international ecology and environmentalism as well as with the Government of New South Wales, Australia. In 2015, she founded the East Wicklow Rivers Trust.She was elected to represent the Greystones local electoral area on the Wicklow County Council, following the 2014 local elections. In July 2015, she helped co-found the Social Democrats as a party and became the party's Spokesperson for Children.
Dáil Member - Michael Ring is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has been a TD for the Mayo constituency since 1997, and previously from 1994 to 1997 for the Mayo West constituency. He served as Minister for Rural and Community Development from 2017 to 2020 and as a Minister of State from 2011 to 2017.
Seanad Member - Rónán Mullen is an Irish senator and former delegate to the Council of Europe. He is the leader of the Human Dignity Alliance, an anti-abortion political party formed in 2018, and was an opponent of the same sex marriage referendum which took place in 2015. Mullen is a frequent media commentator on social and political topics. The first National University of Ireland senator appointed to the Council of Europe, he received international coverage for his role in defeating the controversial McCafferty Report which sought to limit the right to conscientious objection for medical staff in the case of abortions. He is a member of the European political party European Christian Political Movement and sits on the Board of Directors of CEIST (Catholic Education Irish Schools Trust) Ltd, a trust body for over 100 secondary schools around Ireland. He is also a member of the Corporate Board of Management of Daughters of Charity Community Services, an education and community development agency in Dublin's inner city.
