THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE evolution of parliamentary and political reporting in Ireland and builds on earlier work by Foley () and Horgan (). It considers the changing nature of Irish political journalism and the loss of influence of the Parliamentary Press Gallery and its constituent part, the Political Correspondents Group. This analysis takes place against a backdrop of continuing very high interest in politics in Ireland. During the general election, the television debate between Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny, the leaders of the two main political parties, had an average audience of , – a national audience share of . per cent and a reach during the programme of .m viewers. The debate between the leaders of the other political parties – broadcast the previous evening to the main debate – had a national share of . per cent or , viewers. In addition, the RTE website, which had a dedicated area for election material, received just over .m hits on the day of the main leaders’ debate. Party political broadcasts, regardless of their impact, were also watched by sizable audiences – the broadcasts had an average viewership of , people. Opinion poll research undertaken in showed that six in ten of all adults could recall party political broadcasts from the previous general election (Rafter, ). These are all significant figures. While the leaders’ debate is a unique political event linked to a general election with heightened public attention, there is ongoing evidence from continuing high viewership figures for current affairs programmes in non-election periods to suggest that the Irish public continues to turn to the mainstream media for information on politics. However, the journalistic practices which generated this political news for viewers, listeners and readers have changed significantly. After several decades of little development in the structure of the Irish media market – and also in the nature of reporting – more media outlets and increased competition have over the last years introduced considerable diversity into Irish political journalism with different priorities in different organisations. For example, research has shown that the three main daily tabloids – the Irish Sun, the Irish Daily Star and the Evening Herald – devoted few front page headlines to the election campaign and for no more than half of the campaign these newspapers made no mention at all of the election on their front pages. The broadsheets – the Irish Times and the Irish Independent, and to a lesser extent the Irish Examiner mentioned the campaign on their front page on most days during the campaign. (Brandenburg and Zalinski, :) The discussion below seeks to analyse the changing nature of Irish parliamentary and political