The Oireachtas, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:
The Constitution of the Irish Free State was adopted by Act of Dáil Éireann sitting as a constituent assembly on 25 October 1922. In accordance with Article 83 of the Constitution, the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 of the British Parliament, which came into effect upon receiving the royal assent on 5 December 1922, provided that the Constitution would come into effect upon the issue of a Royal Proclamation, which was done on 6 December 1922. In 1937 the Constitution of the Irish Free State was replaced by the modern Constitution of Ireland following a referendum.
The Ninth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1984 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland that allowed for the extension of the right to vote in elections to Dáil Éireann to non-Irish citizens. It was approved by referendum on 14 June 1984, the same day as the European Parliament election, and signed into law on 2 August of the same year.
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 current Constitution of Ireland came into effect on 29 December 1937, repealing and replacing the Constitution of the Irish Free State, having been approved in a national plebiscite on 1 July 1937 with the support of 56.5% of voters in the then Irish Free State. The Constitution was closely associated with Éamon de Valera, the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State at the time of its approval.
Dublin University is a university constituency in Ireland, which currently elects three senators to Seanad Éireann. Its electorate comprises the undergraduate scholars and graduates of the University of Dublin, whose sole constituent college is Trinity College Dublin, so it is often also referred to as the Trinity College constituency. Between 1613 and 1937 it elected MPs or TDs to a series of representative legislative bodies.
The Agricultural Panel is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas. The Agricultural Panel elects eleven senators.
The Cultural and Educational Panel is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas. The Cultural and Educational Panel elects five senators.
Capital punishment in the Republic of Ireland was abolished in statute law in 1990, having been abolished in 1964 for most offences including ordinary murder. The last person to be executed by the British state in Ireland was Robert McGladdery, who was hanged on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The last person to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland was Michael Manning, hanged for murder on 20 April 1954. All subsequent death sentences in the Republic of Ireland, the last handed down in 1985, were commuted by the President, on the advice of the Government, to terms of imprisonment of up to 40 years. The Twenty-first Amendment of the constitution, passed by referendum in 2001, prohibits the reintroduction of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency or war. Capital punishment is also forbidden by several human rights treaties to which the state is a party.
The Emergency Powers Act 1939 (EPA) was an Act of the Oireachtas enacted on 3 September 1939, after an official state of emergency had been declared on 2 September 1939 in response to the outbreak of the Second World War. The Act empowered the government to:
make provisions for securing the public safety and the preservation of the state in time of war and, in particular, to make provision for the maintenance of public order and for the provision and control of supplies and services essential to the life of the community, and to provide for divers and other matters connected with the matters aforesaid.
The Statute Law Revision Act 2007 is an Act of the Oireachtas of the Republic of Ireland which repealed a large amount of pre-1922 legislation of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom while preserving a shorter list of statutes. The Act was the largest single Statute Law Revision Act or repealing measure ever enacted internationally.
The Statute Law Revision Act 1962 is an Act of the Oireachtas.
The Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005 is an Act of the Oireachtas. Section 1 of the Act, with the Schedule, repeals statutes of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Act repealed around 200 statutes and is the first in a series of recent Statute Law Revision Acts enacted in Ireland as part of the Statute Law Revision Programme. It was followed by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, the Statute Law Revision Act 2009 and the Statute Law Revision Act 2012.
The Statute Law Revision Act 2012 is a Statute Law Revision Act enacted by the Oireachtas in Ireland to review Local and Personal Acts passed from 1851 to 1922 and Private Acts passed from 1751 to 1922. The Act repealed a large number of pre-1922 Local and Personal, and Private Acts of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom while preserving a shorter list of statutes that were deemed suitable for retention.
Ireland has had a franchise on an equal basis between men and women since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. Historically, there had also been discrimination from the franchise on the basis of religion and on the basis of property. In 1972, the age of qualification for the franchise was reduced from 21 years to 18 years.
The Constitution Act, 1936 was an act of the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Irish Free State which abolished Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas, which thenceforth was unicameral, with Dáil Éireann as the sole house. The bill was introduced in 1934 by the Fianna Fáil government of Éamon de Valera, which was frustrated by the Seanad's repeated use of its power to delay legislation. In particular, Fianna Fáil favoured eliminating symbols of monarchy from the Free State, which the Seanad, with more Southern Unionist members, feared would antagonise the United Kingdom.
The Constitution Act 1936 was an Act of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State amending the Constitution of the Irish Free State which had been adopted in 1922. It abolished the two university constituencies in Dáil Éireann.
The Constitution Act 1930 was an Act of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State amending the Constitution of the Irish Free State. It amended Article 35 of the constitution.
The Constitution Act 1929 was an Act amending the Constitution of the Irish Free State. It amended Article 34 of the constitution regarding the filling of casual vacancies in Seanad Éireann.
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.
