On Wednesday 14 October, more than 300,000 public servants stopped work for the day. Nurses, doctors, teachers, special needs assistants, civil servants and council staff. RTÉ called it the largest strike in Ireland in almost 20 years. Schools and colleges closed, thousands of hospital appointments were cancelled, and the Dáil and the Seanad did not sit. For one day there was no parliamentary record for us to follow.
We built DáilDex so people can see what the people they elect actually do. On the 14th, hundreds of thousands of people did something harder. They gave up a day’s pay and stood outside in October to be heard. We want to say it plainly: we support them, and everyone who stood with them.
Words are cheap, so here is what we are doing about it.
Dex Pro is free until 7 November
From today, Friday 23 October 2026, until the end of Saturday 7 November 2026, Dex Pro is free for every signed-in DáilDex account. That means every model in Dex, deep research, fact-checks, documents you can keep and the study coach.
There is nothing to claim and no code to enter. If you are signed in, Pro is already on. If you don’t have an account yet, making one is free and takes about a minute. We ask for a sign-in so the offer reaches people rather than bots. It is the only step.
There are no automatic charges. We never ask for card details, so there is nothing to renew and nothing to cancel. When the offer ends, your account goes back to the free plan by itself, and you keep all your chats.
If you already pay for Pro, your limit is doubled
Thank you. Your subscription is what keeps DáilDex independent. Until the end of 7 November you get twice your usual daily messages, 1,000 a day instead of 500. You pay exactly what you pay now, and you don’t need to do anything.
Why Pro, and why now
A dispute like this comes with a lot of reading: what the last pay agreement said, what Budget 2027 set aside, what Ministers and union leaders have said in public, and what is said in the Dáil. Talks at the Workplace Relations Commission began on Monday 19 October, and unions suspended the strike planned for 21 October. Many of the people involved are trying to follow all of this after a full day’s work.
Deep research and fact-checks are the most useful things we make for that kind of reading. So we are opening them to everyone while it matters.
RTÉ: the 14 October strike · RTÉ: talks to begin on 19 October · RTÉ: the planned 21 October strike is suspended · Budget 2027 tracker · Dáil votes
What does not change
Supporting the people who went on strike does not change how we report. DáilDex will keep showing the record as it is: what was said in the Dáil, how every TD voted, and what the Government and the unions have each put on the table, with the source for every fact. We don’t tell anyone how to vote, and Dex won’t either. If we get something wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
A note from all of us
Every one of us went to a school, was treated in a hospital, or filled in a form that a public servant then dealt with. We rarely say thank you for any of it. So: thank you. To the teacher who stays late, the nurse at the end of a double shift, the SNA, the clerical officer, the paramedic, and the council worker who keeps the library open, we see you, and we are grateful.
We are a small team, and two free weeks of Pro is a small thing. But it is what we have, and we wanted to give it.
Le meas, the DáilDex team