The president of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces.
The Oireachtas, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas, a house of representatives called Dáil Éireann and a senate called Seanad Éireann.
Brian Bernard Cowen is an Irish former politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 2008 to 2011. Cowen served as a TD for the constituency of Laois–Offaly from 1984 to 2011 and served in a number of ministerial roles between 1992 and 2011, including as Minister for Finance from 2004 to 2008 and Tánaiste from 2007 to 2008.
An ordinary referendum in Ireland is a referendum on a bill other than a bill to amend the Constitution. The Constitution prescribes the process in Articles 27 and 47. Whereas a constitutional referendum is mandatory for a constitutional amendment bill, an ordinary referendum occurs only if the bill "contains a proposal of such national importance that the will of the people thereon ought to be ascertained". This is decided at the discretion of the President, after a petition by Oireachtas members including a majority of Senators. No such petition has ever been presented, and thus no ordinary referendum has ever been held.
The Oireachtas of the Irish Free State was the legislature of the Irish Free State from 1922 until 1937. It was established by the 1922 Constitution of Ireland which was based from the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was the first independent Irish Parliament officially recognised outside Ireland since the historic Parliament of Ireland which was abolished with the Acts of Union 1800.
The 30th Dáil was elected at the 2007 general election on 24 May 2007 and met on 14 June 2007. The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs. It sat with the 23rd Seanad as the two Houses of the Oireachtas.
There are 60 seats in Seanad Éireann, the senate of the Oireachtas. Its composition is set out in Article 18 of the Constitution of Ireland. This provides for 11 senators to be nominated by the Taoiseach who is appointed next after the general election to Dáil Éireann.
The Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy began in Dublin in December 2008 when Seán FitzPatrick, the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, admitted he had hidden a total of €87 million in loans from the bank, triggering a series of incidents which led to the eventual nationalisation of Anglo on 21 January 2009. FitzPatrick subsequently resigned his position and was followed within twenty-four hours by the bank's non-executive director, Lar Bradshaw and chief executive, David Drumm. A new chairman of Anglo, Donal O'Connor, was quickly appointed from the board, a move welcomed by the Irish Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan. A number of investigations have been launched into the reasons behind the three resignations. The Central Bank of Ireland is carrying out a review of the bank's dealings, although its Financial Regulator, Patrick Neary, has also since resigned his position. So too did a number of other chairmen, directors and executives involved with Anglo, Irish Life and Permanent and Irish Nationwide.
The post-2008 Irish banking crisis was when a number of Irish financial institutions faced almost imminent collapse due to insolvency during the Great Recession. In response, the Irish government instigated a €64 billion bank bailout. This then led to a number of unexpected revelations about the business affairs of some banks and business people. Ultimately, added onto the deepening recession in the country, the banks' bailout was the primary reason for the Irish government requiring IMF assistance and a total restructuring of the government occurred as result.
Brian Joseph Lenihan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Finance from 2008 to 2011, Deputy leader of Fianna Fáil from March 2011 to June 2011, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from 2007 to 2008 and Minister of State for Children from 2002 to 2007. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency from 1996 until his death in 2011.
Seanad Éireann is the senate of the Oireachtas, which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann.
The 24th Seanad was in office from 2011 to 2016. An election to Seanad Éireann, the Senate of the Oireachtas, followed the 2011 general election to the 31st Dáil on 25 February. There are 60 seats in the Seanad: 43 were elected on five vocational panels by serving politicians, for which polling closed on 26 April; 6 were elected in two university constituencies, for which polling closed on 27 April; and 11 were nominated by the Taoiseach on 20 May 2011. The 24th Seanad first met at Leinster House on 25 May 2011. It remained in office until the close of poll for the 25th Seanad in April 2016.
The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was the name given to the entity formed in 2011 by the court-mandated merger of the state-owned banking institutions Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society.
The Convention on the Constitution was established in Ireland in 2012 to discuss proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland. More commonly called simply the Constitutional Convention, it met for the first time 1 December 2012 and sat until 31 March 2014. It had 100 members: a chairman; 29 members of the Oireachtas (parliament); four representatives of Northern Ireland political parties; and 66 randomly selected citizens of Ireland.
The Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2013 was a proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland to abolish Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas. The proposal was rejected by the electorate in a referendum on 4 October 2013 by 51.7% voting against to 48.3% in favour.
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was an Act of the Oireachtas which, until 2018, defined the circumstances and processes within which abortion in Ireland could be legally performed. The act gave effect in statutory law to the terms of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1992 judgment in the X Case. That judgment allowed for abortion where pregnancy endangers a woman's life, including through a risk of suicide. The provisions relating to suicide had been the most contentious part of the bill. Having passed both Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2013, it was signed into law on 30 July by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, and commenced on 1 January 2014. The 2013 Act was repealed by the Health Act 2018, which commenced on 1 January 2019.
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann. It consists of 160 members, each known as a Teachta Dála. TDs represent 39 constituencies and are directly elected for terms not exceeding five years, on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is by far the dominant branch of the Oireachtas. Subject to the limits imposed by the Constitution of Ireland, it has power to pass any law it wishes, and to nominate and remove the Taoiseach. Since 1922, it has met in Leinster House in Dublin.
The Marriage Act 2015 is an act of the Oireachtas which provides for same-sex marriage in Ireland. The act gives legislative effect in statute law to the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which mandates such provision. It was introduced on 15 September 2015 and signed into law on 29 October 2015, and commenced on 16 November 2015.
The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which altered the provisions regulating divorce. It removed the constitutional requirement for a defined period of separation before a Court may grant a dissolution of marriage, and eased restrictions on the recognition of foreign divorces. The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas, the Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2019.
