It is worth referring to the phone book or the Government website and casting an eye over the A to Z of Government Services. This gives an indication of the level and the range of work that is carried out on behalf of the Government. Decisions are carried out at two levels; National and Local. 

National Level
Countries do not run themselves. They need to be managed. In Ireland the National Parliament (Oireachtas) consists of the President and two houses of Parliament: Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (the Senate).

The Dail has 166 elected members knows as TD’s. They attend parliament and deal with the country's social, legal and economic issues. Laws are prepared and debated before they are passed.  These decisions or laws are then filtered down and put into action through the various public services such as the Department of Education and Science or the Department of Finance.

There are 60 members elected or appointed by Government to the Seanad. They play a supportive role in revising laws that are sent to them by the Dail.

The Civil Service
The Civil Service section of public services consists of over thirty different organisations that work directly on behalf of the Government. They make up the various Government departments such as Finance, Education and Science, Health and Transport. Their role is vital to the economic and social life of Ireland, implementing policies and delivering services to the public. The Civil Service offers a huge range of job opportunities, employing over 36,000 people in over thirty different departments. It’s role also includes working with the Government to create and implement new policies and services, dealing directly with the public or even providing market research.

Opportunities in the Civil Service are extremely diverse, ranging from accountancy to HR to customer services. No matter what your area of expertise, there is probably a Civil Service job of interest to you. Clerical, administrative, management, technical and specialist staff are all required. In the past, salary scales were unattractive. All that has now changed and salaries compare very favourably with private industry. Recruitment for all these jobs is undertaken by the Public Appointments Service.
[see 'Ask the Experts' panel 'Public Appointments Service' for detailed information on this sector]

Civil Servants are employed in areas ranging from clerical and administrative posts to senior managerial appointments and professional and technical roles.  There is a broad range of career choices available such as education, health services, transport, finance, library service, fire service, IT, community based opportunities, arts and leisure opportunities and many more.

Local Government
There are over a hundred local authorities in Ireland that constitute our local government system, delivering a wide range of crucially important services to every city, town and village in the country. The purpose of Local Government is to enable people at local level to provide services for themselves, to exercise some control over their affairs and to make decisions through the democratic process.
[see 'Ask the Experts' panel 'LGMSB' for detailed information on this sector]

Local Residents elect individuals to represent them on the various authorities. Elected representatives make decisions on behalf of their constituents and also levy local taxes to fund service provision.

Local Authorities carry out a broad range of activities that make a significant contribution to the development of their communities. 
 
These services include:
Physical Planning and Development, Roads, Sanitary Services, Housing, Waste Management, Fire Protection, Libraries and Museums, Environmental Protection, Parks, Amenities and the Arts.

There are over 38,000 people employed in a wide range of positions, including clerical, professional, craft and technical, library service, fire service, IT, Finance as well as in community, arts and leisure. A total of 1,627 County Councillors are elected from their own localities. Their job is part-time and involves attending meetings to deal with various decisions. These decisions may be with regard to by-laws, development plans, planning applications and budgets 

Politics
In Ireland the people elect politicians to represent them in government, to act on their behalf and to protect their interests. Both Councillors (Local Government) and TD’s (National Parliament) are elected by the public every 5 years. Getting elected by the public requires someone to be well known and well regarded for work in their local community. The most common route into politics is to join a local branch of a political party such as Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour, The Green Party, Sinn Féin or the Progressive Democrats. You will need to become as active as possible and help out, especially at election time. People are usually elected firstly as Councillor to a County Council before they proceed to trying to get elected as a TD for the National Parliament (Oireachtas).