What teachers can use
Seven tools cover most classroom needs. The guides, alerts, standard Dex and Dex Study are free; Dex Pro is an optional paid plan.
Votes. Recorded Dáil divisions, with the result, how each party voted and how every TD voted. Each vote carries a type label (Bill stage, amendment, policy motion, financial or procedural) and a note on whether it makes a Bill law. Open the votes page.
Constituencies. Each constituency elects 3 to 5 TDs. The home page lets pupils look theirs up by constituency or by the first three characters of an Eircode, which is used only in the browser. Browse constituencies.
Compare. Side-by-side comparisons of how parties and TDs act in the Dáil. Compare records.
Follow a TD. Free email alerts when a TD or Senator votes, speaks or asks a parliamentary question. Every alert links to its source, and there is no account to set up. Follow a TD.
Civics guides. Plain-English guides of 6 to 9 minutes for CSPE, Politics and Society and university, such as how a Bill becomes law. Browse all guides.
Ask Dex. A free civic AI tutor for Irish politics that points to official sources, with 50 messages a day. Open Dex.
Dex Study. A study space with a hint-based tutor, practice papers and revision cards, plus class papers for teachers. See how Dex Study works.
Three lessons that use the live record
Each activity runs on current Oireachtas data, so pupils work from the real record rather than a textbook example.
1. What did the House actually decide?
Open the votes page and pick one Bill division. Pupils read the type label and the note beneath it, then explain what the vote decided and what it did not. A Second Stage vote, for example, decides whether a Bill goes beyond debate on its general principles. It does not make the Bill law. A policy motion expresses the House's position but does not itself change the law.
For a fuller walk-through of divisions, amendments and whips, see how to read a Dáil vote.
2. Who represents us?
Pupils look up their constituency, list its 3 to 5 TDs, and compare how those TDs voted on the same division. This works well for CSPE, and it is a natural lead-in to a discussion of PR-STV.
Background reading: how to find your TD and how PR-STV and transfers work.
3. Evidence for a project
Pupils use Dáil votes, debates and parliamentary questions as sources for a CSPE action project or a Politics and Society citizenship project. Pupils should cite the official Oireachtas page they used, not DáilDex.
Start from CSPE action project ideas.
See also the citizenship project blog post.
Setting a class paper in Dex Study
Teachers can build a practice paper from a DáilDex guide or their own sources and share it with a six-character class code. Pupils do not need an account to sit it, and you can see class results. The teacher page explains the setup.
Pupils who want to revise on their own get a hint-based tutor, revision cards scheduled with spaced repetition, and a writing coach that reviews a draft's structure and evidence without writing it. The coach keeps a log of what Dex did, so a pupil can show you how they used it. Dex Study is free with a DáilDex account.
Good to know
- DáilDex is independent and not affiliated with the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Department of Education, the State Examinations Commission or the NCCA. Check your own course requirements before relying on any summary.
- Parliamentary records come from the Houses of the Oireachtas Open Data API, reused under the Open Data PSI Licence (CC BY 4.0).
- DáilDex describes what happened and does not tell pupils what to think about a representative or party.
- Only recorded divisions appear on the votes page. Questions the Dáil decides by voice are not listed.
- Practice paper ratings are self-assessment, not official grades, and an answer key can be wrong, so check it against the source.
- Alerts run on email with a one-click unsubscribe.