Full Message Here – Oireachtas Essay Competition

Dear friends,

We invite you to take part in the Oireachtas Essay Competition (Aiste an Oireachtais), now entering its fourth year.

Is AI a threat to Democracy? There is increasing concern about the future impact of Artificial Intelligence on our society, on relationships between people and on human nature itself.

There are many questions, and perhaps the answers won’t be known for some time. An issue that needs careful consideration is how AI will impact on the flow of information across society and on decision-making within democracies.

Current decision-makers AND future leaders need to be alert to both the opportunities and the challenges.

We are inviting students in Senior Cycle (TY, 5th Year and 6th Year for Leaving Cert), as well as AS and A level students across the island of Ireland, to submit essays on this important theme.

The Oireachtas Essay Competition has achieved much in its first three years and is valued by schools across the island of Ireland. We are grateful to all those students, teachers, parents, education organisations, Oireachtas staff, expert advisors and of course Competition sponsors for responding so positively to the Competition and contributing to its success.

We are proudly supported again by PTSB, our Principal Sponsor. We also welcome again support from education publishers CJ Fallon, our longest serving Sponsor, and leading law firm Mason Hayes and Curran, our new Associate Sponsor. We also thank ESB for supporting this year’s Competition.

Aiste an Oireachtais is a 32-county, bilingual Competition. We welcome essays with a focus on the Oireachtas, the Northern Irish Assembly, the British Parliament or any other decision-making forum. You may send us a piece of political analysis or some fine creative writing. We are open to all possibilities.

This Competition is an opportunity for you to reflect on the importance of democracy to society, to consider how parliamentary life can be a force for good or otherwise, and to think about your own role in the decision-making structures that shape the world around us.

After all, that world depends on you for its future!

We look forward to reading your essays and to meeting some of you at our Awards Ceremony, and in your schools, in 2026.

Thank you for participating and best of luck.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl TD,
Funding Patron

Senator Rónán Mullen,
Competition Convenor

Dear friends,

We invite you to take part in the Oireachtas Essay Competition (Aiste an Oireachtais), now entering its third year.

This Competition has achieved much in its first two years and is already well respected and valued by schools across the island of Ireland. We are grateful to all those students, teachers, parents, education organisations, Oireachtas staff, expert advisors and of course Competition sponsors for responding so positively and contributing to its success.

This year, we are delighted to welcome PTSB as our Principal Sponsors for 2024-27. We would also like to thank CJ Fallon for joining as Associate Sponsor for the third year running.

It’s time to grow! We are extending eligibility for the Competition to Transition Year students. All students in Senior Cycle (TY, 5th Year and 6th Year for Leaving Cert), as well as AS and A level students, are now eligible to participate.

We are proud that this is a 32-county, bilingual Competition. We welcome essays with a focus on the Oireachtas, the Northern Irish Assembly, the British Parliament or any other decision-making forum. You may send us a piece of political analysis or some fine creative writing. We are open to all possibilities.

The coming year, 2025, marks the 250th Anniversary of the birth of ‘The Liberator’, Daniel O’Connell: parliamentarian, lawyer, champion of the downtrodden and the enslaved —and an internationally-renowned Statesman. Who better to inspire excellent essays on the potential of parliament than the great O’Connell? Our theme for this year’s essay is, therefore, ‘Parliamentary Politics Liberates’.

We are grateful to O’Connell’s biographer, Professor Patrick Geoghegan of Trinity College Dublin’s Department of History, for joining our panel of Expert Judges for this year’s Competition. We encourage you to read here Patrick’s thoughts on why O’Connell has much to say to the world of politics today.

As always, the Oireachtas Essay Competition is an opportunity for you to reflect on the importance of democracy to society, to consider how parliamentary life can be a force for good or otherwise, and to think about your own role in the decision-making structures that shape a world that depends on you for its future!

We look forward to reading your essays. We will meet some of you at our Awards Ceremony, and in your schools, in 2025. We look forward to that too!

Thank you for participating and best of luck.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl TD,
Funding Patron

Senator Rónán Mullen,
Competition Convenor

Proudly sponsored by

Associate Sponsors

Proudly sponsored by

Associate Sponsors​

Associate Sponsors