Ireland elects TDs by the single transferable vote in 43 constituencies with three, four or five seats each. The system is the same family as the one Australia uses to elect its Senate and Tasmania uses for its House of Assembly.

Unlike Australia, voting in Ireland is voluntary, so turnout is lower than in Australian federal elections. Ballots are counted by hand, and a full count can take days.

There is also no above-the-line option and no party group tickets. Every Irish ballot lists individual candidates with their party and photo, and you number the people, not the parties.

The Taoiseach, Ireland’s prime minister, leads the Government. Like an Australian Prime Minister, the Taoiseach must hold the confidence of the lower house. The difference is that a Taoiseach is nominated by the Dáil and appointed by the President.

The President of Ireland is head of State and is elected by voters, unlike the Governor-General, who is appointed. The role is largely ceremonial.

Leadership spills are rare. Irish parties do change leaders, but a sitting Taoiseach is more often replaced through a planned coalition rotation or after an election than by a party-room challenge.

One rule explains most of Irish politics: the Government exists only while it has the support of a majority in the Dáil. Voters elect TDs; TDs choose the Taoiseach; the Taoiseach picks Ministers who run the departments. If the Dáil withdraws its confidence, the Government falls.

The President sits outside that chain. The office is directly elected and politically neutral, which is why a popular President can be from a different tradition to the Government of the day.

No. The Australian Senate is elected and can block legislation. The Seanad has 60 members, most elected indirectly by panels and graduates and 11 nominated by the Taoiseach. It can delay a Bill but cannot veto it.

That means Irish Governments do not have to negotiate with crossbench Senators to pass laws. The equivalent pressure comes from independent TDs in the Dáil, whose support Governments often need.

Both countries require a referendum to change the Constitution. In Ireland, a simple majority of voters is enough. Australia also needs a majority of states. Ireland has no states.

Irish referendums pass more often than Australian ones. Voters have approved changes on marriage equality, abortion and divorce, and rejected others, such as abolishing the Seanad in 2013 and two proposals on family and care in 2024.

The familiar voting system can hide the differences.

Irish politics uses Irish-language titles even in English-language news. Nobody translates them, so it helps to know the handful that come up every day.

Australians with an Irish-born parent or grandparent may qualify through the Foreign Births Register. Citizenship is also available through naturalisation after living in Ireland for the required period.

Australians living in Ireland without Irish citizenship can vote in local elections but not in Dáil elections or referendums.

Everything the Oireachtas does is published: every vote, every speech and every answer to a parliamentary question. The hard part is finding what matters in hundreds of pages of transcripts.