Oireachtas - Composition, Role, Committees, History, Northern Ireland representation

An annual Irish gathering organized, on the lines of the Welsh eisteddfod, by the Gaelic League; first held in 1898.

For alternative meanings, see Oireachtas (disambiguation).

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;

Composition

Dáil Éireann, the lower house, is directly elected under universal suffrage of all Irish and British citizens who are resident and at least eighteen years of age, and is held at least once in every five years as required by law. The President of Ireland is directly elected once in every seven years, for a maximum of two terms.

Role

To become law a bill must first be approved by both the Dáil and in most circumstances the Seanad (although the Dáil can override a Seanad refusal to pass a Bill), and then signed into law by the President. 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:—". 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.

The next legislature to exist in Ireland only came into being in 1919. 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. 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. The modern Oireachtas came into being in 1937, with the adoption by referendum of the Constitution of Ireland.

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, who had been elected to represent a Northern constituency in the first Dáil, 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 Northern Ireland to the Seanad. 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. 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. a possible Anglicised pronunciation is /ˈɛɹəxtəs/, roughly air’-əkh-təs ^ The term "National Parliament" appears in Article 15 of the Constitution of Ireland;