The Dublin Region

The Dublin Region3 consists of the City of Dublin and the area which was formerly known as County Dublin, and covers an area of 922 km² and contains over a million inhabitants. In 1994 County Dublin (the area excluding the city) was sub-divided into three, each new area with county-level status and its own administration, namely:
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
Fingal
South Dublin

Administration of the Dublin Region as a whole is now co-ordinated by the Dublin Regional Authority.

National Government

The Republic of Ireland’s National Parliament (called the Oireachtas) consists of the President of Ireland and two houses, Dail Éireann (the House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (Senate). All three are based in Dublin. The President of Ireland lives in Ã?ras an Uachtarain, the former residence of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State in the city’s largest park, Phoenix Park. Both houses of the Oireachtas meet in Leinster House, a former ducal palace on the south side of the city. The building has been the home of Irish parliaments since the creation of the Irish Free State on December 6, 1922.

The Irish Government is based in the Irish Government Buildings, a large building designed by Sir Aston Webb, the architect who created the Edwardian facade to Buckingham Palace. Initially what is now Government Buildings was designed for use as the Royal College of Science, the last major building built by the British administration in Ireland. In 1921 the House of Commons of Southern Ireland met there.

Given its location next to Leinster House, the Irish Free State government took over part of the building to serve as a temporary home for some ministries. However both it and Leinster House (originally meant to be a temporary home of parliament) became the permanent homes of the government and parliament respectively. Until 1990, the Irish government shared the building with the Engineering Faculty of University College Dublin, which retained use of the central block of the building, However following the building of a new Engineering Faculty at the UCD campus in Belfield, the Government took entire control, and remodelled the entire building for governmental use.

The previous old Irish Houses of Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland is located in College Green.