Oireachtas TV is a public service broadcaster for the two houses of the Oireachtas, The Seanad and the Dáil, providing a similar function to the UK’s BBC Parliament or the US’s C-Span. The channel was created under the Broadcasting Act 2009 for broadcast on Irish Digital Terrestrial Television. The channel broadcasts in the Irish and English languages.
In November 2007 the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced in the Dáil that he favoured an Oireachtas channel stating that "compared with a lot of tripe that is on TV, the Oireachtas channel would be far better and very interesting." A proposed structure and function of such a channel were outlined in the Broadcasting Act 2009.

On 15 November 2011, Oireachtas TV began broadcasting initially as part of a trial initiative for a period of six months. Oireachtas TV made a “strong start”, with a reported 150,000 homes across the nation tuning in during this period. UPC claimed that around 20,000 homes watched the channel on a daily basis. The channel formally launched on September 22, 2014 and is now available on UPC Ireland, Sky Ireland, Saorview, Virgin Media Ireland and Vodafone Ireland, with Vodafone dedicating two separate channels to Dáil and Seanad committees.

Oireachtas TV also produces a range of programmes including documentaries, studio debates on important parliamentary issues and historical talks. 
Oireachtas TV is generally not included in publicly available lists of audience reach or share, and viewership appears to be rather low. An Irish Times article from July 2023 notes that “In normal circumstances, a screening of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) would attract 29,000 minutes viewed. This equates to approximately 240 people watching a PAC hearing if it lasted two hours (120 minutes).”

However, viewership can also spike significantly at times, particularly during committee hearings concerning political scandals that are being covered in the mainstream. That same Irish Times Article, written in response to record viewership of Oireachtas TV in the aftermath of the July 2023 RTE scandal, and the widely anticipated depositions by Ryan Tubridy, Noel Kelly, and Kevin Bakhurst among others, goes on to note “The total number of minutes watched on Oireachtas TV last Tuesday was 9.1 million - a 300-fold increase on normal. It is the equivalent of 150,000 hours, 6,250 days or 17 years of total viewing.”

The channel is funded by the Irish Taxpayer, with the channel production and presentation costing approximately €200,000 annually, and distribution costing a further €250,000.