Ireland MCP

Ireland MCP is a free, read-only MCP server that lets AI assistants answer questions with live Irish public data and citations.

Hosted endpoint: https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp Transport: Streamable HTTP. Auth: none. Writes: none.

Try asking

• “What is the latest population profile for Galway city or County Cork?”
• “Are there Met Éireann weather warnings near Dublin today?”
• “What did houses sell for in Ennis last year?”
• “When is the next train from Heuston, and are there disruptions?”
• “Who are the current TDs for my constituency, and what bills are active?”
• “What protected habitats, monuments, planning applications or census areas are near this point?”

See it work

Proof	Screenshot
Live landing page, desktop
Live landing page, mobile
Install section with one-click client setup
Playground populated from a real live MCP call
MCP Inspector connected to the live endpoint
Real model transcript: question → tool calls → answer

Install

Client	Current setup
Claude custom connector	Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → URL https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp → no auth.
ChatGPT developer mode connector	Settings → Apps & Connectors → Advanced settings → enable Developer mode → create MCP connector → URL above → no auth. The remote endpoint supports Streamable HTTP; search/fetch are included for deep-research style clients.
VS Code	Deeplink: vscode://mcp/install?.... Or add .vscode/mcp.json: { "servers": { "ireland": { "type": "http", "url": "https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp" } } }.
VS Code Insiders	Deeplink: vscode-insiders://mcp/install?....
Cursor	Deeplink: cursor://anysphere.cursor-deeplink/mcp/install?name=ireland&config=.... Decoded config: { "type": "http", "url": "https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp" }.
GitHub Copilot CLI	copilot mcp add --transport http ireland https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp or put the JSON below in ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json.
Claude Code	claude mcp add --transport http ireland https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp
Local stdio	npm package target: npx -y ireland-mcp after npm publication. Today, run from source: npm ci && npm run build && node dist/src/cli.js. Add --toolsets=cso,irish-rail or IRELAND_MCP_TOOLSETS=all if you want typed tools listed locally.

Portable Copilot / MCP JSON:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ireland": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp",
      "tools": ["*"]
    }
  }
}

Why it is lean

Most data MCPs expose every typed tool up front. Ireland MCP keeps the default tools/list to 7 tools, 7,192 characters, about 1,798 tokens on this branch (npm run measure:tools). CI fails if that list grows past 16,000 characters.

Need typed tools anyway?

Surface	Use
Default HTTP	/mcp lists only ireland_catalogue, ireland_describe, ireland_call, ireland_about, search, fetch, nearby.
Source toolsets	/mcp?toolsets=cso,irish-rail lists selected typed tools too.
One source path	/mcp/x/{source} lists that source's typed tools, for example /mcp/x/met-eireann.
Everything	/mcp?toolsets=all lists all 74 tools and is useful for debugging, not routine chat.
Local stdio	From source: node dist/src/cli.js --toolsets=cso or IRELAND_MCP_TOOLSETS=all (npm package not yet published).

max_tokens defaults to about 2,000 output tokens and can be set from 100 to 8,000. Large results return truncated, counts and narrowing hints instead of flooding the context.

Architecture

The server is a stateless Azure Functions Flex app with a lean gateway in front of the source modules. The gateway owns the operation index, response budgets, cache, upstream budgets, circuit breakers and evidence envelope; every normal result includes source URL, licence, attribution and retrieval metadata.

Diagram	Editable source
	ireland-mcp-arch-v5.drawio
	ireland-mcp-request-flow.drawio
	ireland-mcp-lean-surface.drawio

Sources

Generated from src/registry.ts and the 28 source modules. The default nearby, search and fetch shortcuts sit above these sources.

Domain	Source id	Publisher / source	Operations	Licence
stats	cso	Central Statistics Office (CSO) PxStat	4	CC BY 4.0
economy	world-bank	World Bank Open Data	2	CC BY 4.0
stats	eurostat	Eurostat Statistics API	3	Eurostat reuse policy (CC BY 4.0 equivalent)
stats	ecb	ECB Data Portal	3	ECB terms, free reuse with attribution
stats	pobal	Pobal HP Deprivation Index 2022	1	CC BY 4.0
stats	data-gov-ie	data.gov.ie	3	Per dataset, mostly CC BY 4.0
economy	cro	Companies Registration Office open data	3	CC BY 4.0
economy	kohesio	European Commission Kohesio — may block some cloud-hosted IPs; use local stdio if hosted calls return 403	2	EU reuse policy / CC BY 4.0 compatible
stats	smart-dublin	Smart Dublin open data	3	Per dataset, mostly CC BY 4.0
stats	census-areas	CSO Census 2022 small areas / Tailte Éireann	1	CC BY 4.0
law/politics	oireachtas	Houses of the Oireachtas Open Data API	5	Oireachtas Open Data PSI Licence
law/politics	legislation	Irish Statute Book	3	PSI General Licence / CC BY 4.0
places/property	geohive	Tailte Éireann GeoHive boundaries	4	CC BY 4.0
places/property	wikidata	Wikidata	2	CC0 1.0
places/property	ppr	Residential Property Price Register	2	PSI General Licence / CC BY 4.0
places/property	planning	National Planning Application Database	2	CC BY 4.0
places/property	heritage	National Monuments Service SMR	1	CC BY 4.0
environment	met-eireann	Met Éireann	3	CC BY 4.0
environment	marine	Marine Institute weather buoys	1	CC BY 4.0
environment	opw-water	OPW waterlevel.ie	2	CC BY 4.0
environment	environment-sites	NPWS designated protected sites	2	CC BY 4.0
environment	epa	EPA Water Framework Directive open data	2	CC BY 4.0
transport	nta	National Transport Authority GTFS-Realtime	2	CC BY 4.0
transport	irish-rail	Iarnród Éireann realtime API	2	Public open data; attribution required
transport	luas	Luas Forecasting API / TII	2	CC BY 4.0
transport	bikes	CityBikes / GBFS	2	CityBikes attribution/link; underlying operator terms
energy	eirgrid	EirGrid Smart Grid Dashboard	1	Public information; attribution required
economy	ted	EU TED	2	EU reuse policy / CC BY 4.0

Licence and attribution

Layer	Licence / attribution
Code	MIT, copyright Conor Mongan.
Source metadata and returned data	Stays under each publisher licence. Every normal tool response includes source, url, licence, attribution, retrieved_at, cache and truncation metadata.
CSO / Eurostat / ECB / Wikidata / World Bank	Cite CSO, Eurostat, ECB Data Portal, Wikidata contributors and World Bank Open Data respectively; Wikidata is CC0.
Oireachtas / legislation / PSI sources	Cite Oireachtas Open Data, eISB / Office of the Attorney General, PSRA, OPW and other named PSI publishers as shown in responses.
Weather, transport, environment, business and maps	Cite Met Éireann, NTA, Iarnród Éireann, TII/Luas, EirGrid, Marine Institute, Tailte Éireann, NMS, NPWS, EPA, Pobal, CRO, Kohesio/TED and JCDecaux/CityBikes/GBFS as applicable.
Full notice	See NOTICE. Not affiliated with any government body, data publisher or transport operator.

Observability and privacy

• GET /healthz is fast liveness; GET /healthz?deep=1 performs one cheap check per source.
• A status workflow publishes status/status.json and 7-day history.
• OpenTelemetry can export MCP semantic-convention spans and operation-duration metrics to Azure Monitor.
• Tool logs and telemetry avoid argument values and IP addresses. See PRIVACY.md.
• Browser CORS is restricted by MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS; non-browser MCP clients are unaffected.

Limits

• Read-only public data only. No login-gated, paid or key-required user data.
• NTA realtime tools need a server-side NTA operator key; other tools work without keys.
• Upstream data can be delayed, provisional, incomplete or temporarily down. Stale cache is labelled stale: true.
• Property Price Register values are declared sale prices, not valuations.
• Legislation text is for retrieval and analysis, not legal advice.
• Large tables are paginated or truncated. Use fields, limit, cursor and source filters.

Run from source

Needs Node 22.12 or later.

git clone https://github.com/c-mongan/ireland-mcp
cd ireland-mcp
npm ci
npm run build
node dist/src/cli.js
npm run dev:http     # local HTTP dev server, MCP at /mcp

Development

Command	What it does
npm test	Unit tests against recorded fixtures; no network.
npm run typecheck && npm run lint	TypeScript and ESLint.
npm run build	Compile production JS and copy runtime assets.
npm run inspector:check	MCP Inspector conformance.
npm run measure:tools [-- all]	Measure default or all-tool tools/list.
npm run live:sanity	One real call per source through ireland_call; writes docs/live-sanity.md.
npm run live:all [-- --url https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp]	Real MCP client proof for every catalogue operation; writes docs/live-all-ops.md.
npm run eval	Promptfoo evaluation; default surface unless EVAL_TOOLSETS=all.

Eval results

69 routing questions, run through a multi-round agent loop that sends the server instructions as the system prompt (2026-10-05, Azure OpenAI):

Model	Default surface (7 tools)	all surface (74 tools)
gpt-5.6-luna	100%	100%
gpt-5.4-mini	91%	97%
gpt-4.1-nano (worst-case floor)	84%	90%

gpt-5.x models reject temperature: 0. For them, set EVAL_TEMPERATURE=default, for example: AZURE_DEPLOYMENT=gpt-56-luna EVAL_TEMPERATURE=default npm run eval.

Contributing: add a source

1. Create src/sources/<id>/index.ts exporting a SourceModule with info, summary, domain, coverage, tools, optional search() and fetchById().
2. Keep every tool name source-prefixed, validate args with zod and return the evidence envelope with source URL, licence and attribution.
3. Use ctx.cachedJson / ctx.cachedText so upstream budgets, caching, circuit breakers and stale fallback apply.
4. Add fixtures and tests at the module seam, then add a server-level ireland_call test when useful.
5. Register the module in src/registry.ts, update scripts/live-sanity.mjs, eval cases and docs.
6. Run lint, typecheck, tests, build, inspector and live sanity before opening a PR.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full checklist.

Registry and publishing

Ireland MCP is listed on the official MCP Registry as a remote-only Streamable HTTP server named io.github.c-mongan/ireland-mcp (v1.0.0). Clients that browse the registry can install it by name. The future domain name is planned as ie.irishopendata/ireland after DNS verification. Publishing notes and directory checklists are in docs/publishing.md. Do not publish from a fork without changing the name and endpoint.

Credits and prior art

Thank you to the maintainers of Irish-data and public-data MCP projects that helped shape the direction:

Project	What to look at
keithd1998/irlcli	Irish open-data CLI for LLM use.
sumitsimplex/irish-mcps and irishmcp.ie	Irish MCP platform and public-data UX.
faulknco/archaic-stats-mcp	CSO/PxStat MCP focused on Irish statistics.
datagouv/datagouv-mcp	National open-data catalogue MCP pattern.
brockwebb/open-census-mcp-server	Census-data MCP interface and interpretation pattern.
ondata/ckan-mcp-server	CKAN search/query server design.
cyanheads/eurostat-mcp-server	Eurostat MCP implementation.
isakskogstad/OECD-MCP	OECD statistical-data MCP.

Data comes from the publishers listed above, including CSO, data.gov.ie, Met Éireann, OPW, Irish Rail, Oireachtas, GeoHive/Tailte Éireann, National Monuments Service, NPWS, EPA, Pobal, CRO, World Bank, Eurostat, ECB, Wikidata, Kohesio, TED, JCDecaux/CityBikes and others. Please cite the publisher shown in each response.

Security

Security reports: SECURITY.md. This project is read-only, but MCP servers can still retrieve untrusted web content; clients should follow their normal MCP trust and approval model.