ent also appoints the Supreme Court judges on the advice of the government. The Irish Parliament (Oireachtas) consists of the Senate (Seanad Eireann) and the House of Representatives (Dail Eireann). The Senate consists of 60 seats, 49 elected by the universities and from candidates put forward by five vocational panels, while the other 11 are nominated by the Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern. The members serve five-year terms. The House of Representatives has 166 seats elected by direct popular vote and in most counties a proportional representation system calls the single transferable vote system (STV) is used. This complicated system is very rare and is only used in the small Mediterrianian Island of Malta. This system is closely related to the multimember-district system where the voters actually rank their representatives for each district. Each county has from four to seven representatives based on population. The members of the House also serve five-year terms. The Senate is the upper house of parliament and the power of the Senate extends only to delaying for a period of 90 days a bill is passed by the House. The House, like our House of Representatives in the US, proposes the bills. ElectionThe results of the last House election show that the Fianna Fail party received 77 out of the 166 seats. Not a majority. The Irish government achieves majority by forming party coalitions. The other major parties receiving votes were the Fine Gael (54), Labour Party (17), Progressive Democrats (4), Democratic Left (4), Greens (2), Sinn Fein (1), Socialist Party (1), and other independents received 6 votes (Political Handbook 449). In the Senate, the Fianna Fail holds 29 of the 60 seats. Political PartiesThe Fianna Fail (“Solders of Destiny”) has become the largest and most successful party that Ireland has ever had. It is currently in power in a rainbow coalition with the Progressive Democrats and a number of Indep...
