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The Oireachtas is the "national parliament" or legislature of the Republic of Ireland, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann.

The Oireachtas consists of the President of Ireland and two houses; the two houses are often referred to as the Houses of the Oireachtas and are: Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. The Houses of the Oireachtas currently reside in Leinster House in Dublin, an eighteenth century ducal palace. The directly-elected Dáil is by far the most powerful branch of the Oireachtas.

Composition

Dáil Éireann, the lower house, is directly elected under universal adult suffrage, at least once in every five years as required by law. However the house can usually be dissolved at any time at the request of the Taoiseach (head of government). Dail elections occur under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote. The Senate is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members selected in a number of ways. 49 senators are elected by councillors and parliamentarians, and eleven are appointed by the Taoiseach, and six are elected by two university constituencies. The President of Ireland is directly elected once in every seven years, for a maximum of two terms. However if, as has occurred on a number of occasions, a consensus among political parties means that only a single candidate is nominated, then no actual ballot occurs.

Role

To become law a bill must first be approved by both the Dáil and in most circumstances the Seanad (although the Dail can override a Seanad refusal to pass a Bill), and then signed into law by the President. Bills to amend the Constitution must also be approved by the People prior to being presented to the President. In most circumstances, the President is in effect obliged to sign all laws approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas, although he or she has the power to refer most bills to the Supreme Court for a ruling on constitutionality. The powers of the Seanad are in effect limited to delay rather than veto. It is the Dáil, therefore, that is the supreme tier of the Irish legislature. The general enacting formula for Acts of the Oireachtas is: "Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:-", for an act with a preamble this enacting formula is, instead, "Be it therefore enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:—".

Powers

The Oireachtas has exclusive power to:

• Legislate, including a power vested in the Dail of approving the financial resolutions relevant to the budget.
• Create subordinate legislatures.
• Propose changes to the constitution (must be initiated in the Dail), which must then be submitted to a referendum.
• Raise military or armed forces.
• Allow international agreements to become part of the domestic law of the state.
• Pass certain laws having extra-territorial effect (in accordance with the similar practices of other states).
• Enact, when it considers a state of emergency to exist, almost any law it deems necessary.

Limitations

• Laws are invalid if, and to the extent that, they contradict the constitution.
• In the event of a conflict, EU law also takes precedence over acts of the Oireachtas.
• It may not retrospectively criminalise acts that were not illegal at the time they were committed.
• It may not enact any law providing for the imposition of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency.
• It can only legislate for the Republic of Ireland and not for Northern Ireland.

Committees

Each house of the Oireachtas has its own committees but there are also a number of joint committees that include members of both. There are currently twenty of these (the first thirteen below are based on the thirteen select committees of the Dáil):

• Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food
• Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs
• Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources
  • Sub-Committee on Salmon Drift Netting, Draft Netting and Angling
  • ICT Sub-Committee
• Joint Committee on Education and Science
• Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business
• Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government
• Joint Committee on European Affairs
  • Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny
• Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service
• Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • Sub-Committee on Development Co-Operation
  • Sub-Committee on Human Rights
• Joint Committee on Health and Children
  • Sub-Committee on Orthodontics
  • Sub-Committee on the High Levels of Suicide in Irish Society
• Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights
  • Sub-Committee on the Barron Report on the Dublin Bombings of 1972 and 1973
  • Sub-Committee on the Barron Report on the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974
  • Sub-Committee on the Barron Report on the Murder of Seamus Ludlow
• Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs
• Joint Committee on Transport
• Committee on Article 35.4.1 of the Constitution and section 39 of the Courts of Justice Act 1924
• Joint Committee on the Constitution
• Joint Committee on Broadcasting and Parliamentary Information
• Joint Committee on House Services
• Joint Committee on Standing Orders
• Standing Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills
• Working Group of Committee Chairmen

History

The word oireachtas comes from the Irish language name MacOireachtaigh (Geraghty), believed to have been advisors to ancient King O'Connor and has been the title of two parliaments in Irish history: the current Oireachtas of the Republic of Ireland, since 1937, and, immediately before that, the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State of 1922-1937.

The earliest parliament in Ireland was the Parliament of Ireland, in existence until 1801. This parliament governed the whole island of Ireland but was, over its history, subordinate to varying degrees to the English, and later British, Parliament. This Parliament consisted of the King of Ireland, a House of the Lords and a House of Commons. In 1800 the Irish Parliament abolished itself when, after widespread bribery of members, it adopted the Act of Union, which came into effect from 1 January 1801.

The next legislature to exist in Ireland only came into being in 1919. This was an extra-legal, unicameral parliament established by Irish republicans, known simply as Dáil Éireann. This revolutionary Dáil was notionally a legislature for the whole island of Ireland. In 1920, in parallel to the extra-legal Dáil, the British government created a home rule legislature called the Parliament of Southern Ireland. However this parliament was boycotted by most Irish politicians. It was made up of the King, the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and the Senate of Southern Ireland. The Parliament of Southern Ireland was formally abolished in 1922, with the establishment of the Oireachtas under the Constitution of the Irish Free State.

The Oireachtas of the Irish Free State consisted officially of the King and two houses, named, as their successors would be, Dáil Éireann (described, in this case, as a 'Chamber of Deputies') and Seanad Éireann. However the Free State Senate was abolished in 1935. The modern Oireachtas came into being in 1937, with the adoption by referendum of the Constitution of Ireland.

The televising of Oireachtas debates commenced in 1990, whilst those of committees commenced in 1993.

Northern Ireland representation

Although, as adopted in 1937, Article 3 of the constitution asserted the "right of the parliament and government established by this constitution to exercise jurisdiction" over the whole of Ireland, it also provided that pending the "re-integration of the national territory" Acts of the Oireachtas would not apply to Northern Ireland. Therefore no serious attempts have been made for the representation of Northern Ireland in the Dáil. As Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, while a staunch opponent of partition, and while having been originally elected to the Dail for a Northern constituency himself, did not pursue the idea of seats in the Dáil for Northern Ireland, on the grounds that this would amount to representation without taxation, although subsequent Taoisigh have appointed people from the Northern Ireland to the Seanad.

More recently, Sinn Féin has advocated that elected representatives from Stormont, Westminster, or Strasbourg should have the right to participate in Dáil debates, if not voting rights. In 2005 the current Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, proposed that Northern Ireland MPs should be able to address a committee of the whole of house sitting in the Dáil chamber. However both the media and Fine Gael, Labour, the Irish Greens, the Socialist Party and the Ahern's coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats, all opposed the idea, as did some Oireachtas members from Fianna Fáil. Only Sinn Féin, the party that stood to gain most from the proposal, supported it. The proposal was also criticised widely in the media, with editorials and/or columns published criticising the proposal in The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Independent and other publications. Only the republican-leaning Daily Ireland supported the proposal fully.

Footnote

1. Oireachtas is pronounced /ˈɛɾʲəxt̪əs/ in Irish; a possible Anglicised pronunciation is /ˈɛɹəxtəs/, roughly air’-əkh-təs
2. The term "National Parliament" appears in Article 15 of the Constitution of Ireland; it is a description of the role of the Oireachtas, rather than an alternative official title.
3. Oireachtas website: Parliamentary Televising
4. See Irish Independent editorial.

See also

• Dáil Éireann
• Seanad Éireann
• List of Acts of the Oireachtas
• Parliament
• Legislature
• Bicameralism

External link

• Official website

• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• National legislatures
• 1937 establishments