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.
Dermot Christopher Ahern is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Justice and Law Reform from 2008 to 2011, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2008, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources from 2002 to 2004, Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs from 1997 to 2002 and Government Chief Whip and Minister of State at the Department of Defence from 1991 to 1992. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency from 1987 to 2011.
Seanad Éireann was the upper house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. It has also been known simply as the Senate, First Seanad, Free State Senate or Free State Seanad. The Seanad was established under the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State. A number of constitutional amendments were made to change the manner of its election and its powers. It was eventually abolished in 1936 when it attempted to obstruct constitutional reforms favoured by the government. It sat, like its modern successor, in Leinster House.
The Seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 1979 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland that provides that the procedure for the election of six members of the Senate in the university constituencies could be altered by law. It was approved by referendum on 5 July 1979 and signed into law on 3 August of the same year.
The Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution Act 2001 of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment that permitted the state to become a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was approved by referendum on 7 June 2001 and signed into law on the 27 March 2002. The referendum was held on the same day as referendums on the prohibition of the death penalty, which was also approved, and on the ratification of the Nice Treaty, which was rejected.
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 Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 2004 amended the Constitution of Ireland to limit the constitutional right to Irish citizenship of individuals born on the island of Ireland to the children of at least one Irish citizen and the children of at least one parent who is, at the time of the birth, entitled to Irish citizenship. It was approved by referendum on 11 June 2004 and signed into law on 24 June of the same year. It affected in part changes made to the Constitution by the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which was passed as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1995 is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which removed the constitutional prohibition on divorce, and allowed for the dissolution of a marriage provided specified conditions were satisfied. It was approved by referendum on 24 November 1995 and signed into law on 17 June 1996.
The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2001 was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland to allow the state to ratify the Treaty of Nice of the European Union. The proposal was rejected in a referendum held in June 2001, sometimes referred to as the first Nice referendum. The referendum was held on the same day as referendums on the prohibition of the death penalty and on the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, both of which were approved.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2001 was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland to tighten the constitutional ban on abortion. It would have removed the threat of suicide as a grounds for legal abortion in the state, as well as introducing new penalties for anyone performing an abortion, by giving constitutional status to legislation proposed to be enacted after the amendment. It was narrowly rejected in a referendum held on 6 March 2002, with 50.4% against.
Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas, which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann.
In Ireland, "publication or utterance of blasphemous matter", defamatory of any religion, was a criminal offence until 17 January 2020. It was a requirement of the 1937 Constitution until removed after a 2018 referendum. The common law offence of blasphemous libel, applicable only to Christianity and last prosecuted in 1855, was believed to fulfil the constitutional requirement until a 1999 ruling that it was incompatible with the constitution's guarantee of religious equality. The Defamation Act 2009 included a provision intended to fill the lacuna while being "virtually impossible" to enforce, and no prosecution was made under it. The 2009 statute increased controversy, with proponents of freedom of speech and freedom of religion arguing for amending the constitution. After the 2018 constitutional amendment, a separate bill to repeal the 2009 provision and residual references to blasphemy was enacted in 2019 by the Oireachtas (parliament) and came into force in 2020. The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, which includes religion among the characteristics protected from incitement to hatred, remains in force.
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 Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution Act 2013 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which established a Court of Appeal to sit between the existing High and Supreme Courts for the purpose of taking over most of the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The amendment was approved by the electorate in a referendum on 4 October 2013, and then signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins on 1 November 2013.
Democracy Matters is an Irish campaign group set up to campaign for the retention of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas or parliament. It was set up to oppose the 2013 bill to abolish the Seanad introduced by the Fine Gael–Labour government. After the defeat of the bill at referendum, Democracy Matters has remained in existence to argue for reform of the Seanad and the relationship between it and Dáil Éireann, the more powerful lower house of the Oireachtas.
At most elections in the Republic of Ireland the electoral register is based on residential address, and the only non-resident voters are those serving abroad on government business; this includes Irish diplomats and their spouses, and Defence Forces and Garda Síochána personnel but not their spouses. An exception is in elections to the Seanad for which graduates voting in the university constituencies may be nonresident. A government bill introduced in 2019 proposed allowing non-resident citizens to vote in presidential elections.
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.
Various proposals have been considered since the 1980s to extend the franchise in Irish presidential elections to citizens resident outside the state. In 2019, the then government introduced a bill to amend the constitution to facilitate this extension. The bill lapsed in January 2020 when the 32nd Dáil was dissolved for the 2020 general election, but was restored to the order paper in July 2020.
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