Ways to Contact Parliament
Your leaders always are eager to hear from you and other of their constituents! After all, you and your fellow constituents are the people who vote them into power, and can vote out of power. Nevertheless, most people don’t know the various ways in which they can contact their leaders. This page touches on some of the most common ways. Make sure to remain professional and respectful in all of your communications with your leaders and their offices, no matter which avenue of communication you are using.
At The Borgen Project, we’ve found that one of the most effective ways to get in contact with one’s leaders is through emailing them directly. You can find your leaders’ emails on their official profiles on the Oireachtas website. While not a formal letter, make sure to include your address at the bottom of your email. This allows the leader to verify that you are one of their constituents.
When emailing your TDs throughout your internship with The Borgen Project, or when you want to email about global poverty reduction issues in general, please make sure to use our Action Centre.
Phone Call
A simple and quick way to also contact your leaders is by making a phone call to their office. Their office phone number(s) can also be found on your leaders’ official Oireachtas profile.
Typically, it’s an intern or a lower-level staffer who answers the call. Questions from the staffer answering the call, beyond just asking for your address (to confirm you are a constituent) or a call-back number, aren’t common. However, if they do ask an in-depth question and you’re unsure of the answer, just tell them you’ll need to look into it and get back to them, ask them for a good way to reach them, and then seek assistance from your manager.
Letter
Letter writing is one of the oldest ways of contacting and communicating with Parliamentary leaders, and remains a heavily impactful way. It is even more impactful and effective when handwritten rather than typed, as it adds a personal touch to the letter. When sending your letter in the mail, it is best to address it to their Leinster House address. Make sure you include your address both on the letter itself and on the envelope (as the return address).
Read more about writing letters to your TDs here.
Tweet
The age of social media has brought another way to quickly contact your leaders and get their attention. Most leaders are on Twitter, and just a small Tweet directed to your leaders to ask for support on a bill/issue can make them aware that you care and that they should take action. What’s nice about tweeting is that it is simple too and can be done on-the-go! While you shouldn’t put your address or postal code in your tweet, make sure to mention your city/town, as that will indicate to your leaders that you are one of their constituents.
Read more about using social media to contact your leaders here.
