Caveat lector

This post discusses tools reluctantly written with AI assistance. If you don’t entertain using them under any circumstance, and think even reading about them legally compromise your ability to reimplement them yourselves, stop reading now

Irish politics is refreshingly civilized by US or UK standards – so much so, in fact, that the otherwise-excellent Oireachtas votes page does not break down votes by party affiliation!

The raw data is actually there - which TD belongs to which party - and when the topic is contentious (like the recent vote to waive the three-day waiting period for abortion) - it does not help to know that some coalition ministers vote for it. How about the rest of the governing parties?

To answer this, and other questions, I wrote the oireachtas-votes tool.

Behold:

Dáil · 2026-06-17 · Health (Abolition of Three Day Wait Rule) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (dbsect_67)
Divisions: 1

┌─────────────────────────────────┬────┬─────┬───────┬───────┐
│ Party                           ┆ Tá ┆ Níl ┆ Staon ┆ Total │
╞═════════════════════════════════╪════╪═════╪═══════╪═══════╡
│ Fianna Fáil                     ┆ 12 ┆ 30  ┆ 0     ┆ 42    │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Sinn Féin                       ┆ 35 ┆ 0   ┆ 0     ┆ 35    │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Fine Gael                       ┆ 11 ┆ 23  ┆ 0     ┆ 34    │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Independent                     ┆ 2  ┆ 12  ┆ 0     ┆ 14    │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Social Democrats                ┆ 12 ┆ 0   ┆ 0     ┆ 12    │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Labour Party                    ┆ 10 ┆ 0   ┆ 0     ┆ 10    │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ People Before Profit-Solidarity ┆ 3  ┆ 0   ┆ 0     ┆ 3     │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Independent Ireland             ┆ 0  ┆ 3   ┆ 0     ┆ 3     │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Aontú                           ┆ 0  ┆ 2   ┆ 0     ┆ 2     │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Green Party                     ┆ 1  ┆ 0   ┆ 0     ┆ 1     │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ TOTAL                           ┆ 86 ┆ 70  ┆ 0     ┆ 156   │
└─────────────────────────────────┴────┴─────┴───────┴───────┘

No matter your view on this issue and others, it probably helps to know how parties actually vote on things in addition to what they write in their manifestos. Hopefully this tool makes it easier to do that - I am no web developer, so unfortunately I can’t commit to writing and hosting such a service.

Speaking of web services, this tool is written to not overload the Oireachtas API service - member data (which TD belongs to which party) is cached, and the tool can be asked to refresh the cache if needed.

Feedback time

Let me know if this is useful to you or if you have requests for improvement or bugfixes! Please file requests at the issue tracker.

This post is day 38 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

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