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To permit the state to ratify the Single European Act | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1987 (previously bill no. 8 of 1987) is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland that permitted the state to ratify the Single European Act. It was approved by referendum on 26 May 1987 and signed into law on 22 June of the same year.
The Single European Act (SEA) was signed in February 1986 by the member states of the European Economic Community. It amended the Treaty of Rome and established the European Single Market. The European Communities (Amendment) Act 1986 was passed to allow provisions of the SEA to become part of domestic Irish law. On 22 December 1986, Raymond Crotty sought an injunction preventing Minister for Foreign Affairs Peter Barry from ratifying the Treaty on behalf of the state. He was refused relief by Donal Barrington in the High Court but was successful in part in the Supreme Court. In a majority judgment delivered in Crotty v. An Taoiseach , the Court held that Title III of the SEA would bind the State to concede part of its sovereignty in a manner not permitted by the Constitution under the amendment made in 1972 to allow accession to the European Communities. [1] In response, the newly elected government of Taoiseach Charles Haughey proposed an amendment to the constitution.
Amendment to Article 29.4.3° by the addition of the text in bold (emphasis added):
3° The State may become a member of the European Coal and Steel Community (established by Treaty signed at Paris on the 18th day of April, 1951), the European Economic Community (established by Treaty signed at Rome on the 25th day of March, 1957) and the European Atomic Energy Community (established by Treaty signed at Rome on the 25th day of March, 1957). The State may ratify the Single European Act (signed on behalf of the Member States of the Communities at Luxembourg on the 17th day of February, 1986, and at The Hague on the 28th day of February, 1986). No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State necessitated by the obligations of membership of the Communities, or prevents laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the Communities, or institutions thereof, from having the force of law in the State.
The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1987 was proposed in the Dáil by Taoiseach Charles Haughey on 22 April 1987 on behalf of the minority Fianna Fáil government. [2] It was also supported by Fine Gael, who had negotiated the SEA during the previous government. At Second Stage, it passed by 108 votes to 29, where was opposed by the Progressive Democrats, the Labour Party, the Workers' Party, and independent TDs Neil Blaney and Tony Gregory. [3] It passed Final Stages in the Dáil on 24 April by 123 votes to 17, on this occasion with the Progressive Democrats supporting its passage. [4] It passed the Seanad on 25 April and proceeded to a referendum. [5]
As well as the parties above, the SEA was also supported by employers' and farmers' organisations.
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
 Yes | 755,423 | 69.92 |
| No | 324,977 | 30.08 |
| Valid votes | 1,080,400 | 99.55 |
| Invalid or blank votes | 4,904 | 0.45 |
| Total votes | 1,085,304 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,461,790 | 44.09 |
| Constituency | Electorate | Turnout (%) | Votes | Proportion of votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | Yes | No | |||
| Carlow–Kilkenny | 78,653 | 45.0% | 25,284 | 9,856 | 72.0% | 28.0% |
| Cavan–Monaghan | 75,913 | 41.4% | 24,913 | 6,294 | 79.9% | 20.1% |
| Clare | 63,510 | 42.6% | 20,816 | 6,129 | 77.3% | 22.7% |
| Cork East | 55,940 | 46.7% | 17,285 | 8,747 | 66.4% | 33.6% |
| Cork North-Central | 64,011 | 43.6% | 15,068 | 12,759 | 54.2% | 45.8% |
| Cork North-West | 41,244 | 48.4% | 14,296 | 5,549 | 72.1% | 27.9% |
| Cork South-Central | 77,231 | 50.7% | 24,040 | 14,983 | 61.7% | 38.3% |
| Cork South-West | 42,304 | 47.1% | 13,734 | 6,100 | 69.3% | 30.7% |
| Donegal North-East | 44,055 | 38.5% | 11,040 | 5,834 | 65.5% | 34.5% |
| Donegal South-West | 47,526 | 34.2% | 11,090 | 5,117 | 68.5% | 31.5% |
| Dublin Central | 72,116 | 43.6% | 18,182 | 13,150 | 58.1% | 41.9% |
| Dublin North | 48,071 | 46.0% | 16,090 | 5,927 | 73.1% | 26.9% |
| Dublin North-Central | 57,247 | 51.2% | 19,263 | 9,944 | 66.0% | 34.0% |
| Dublin North-East | 51,377 | 46.9% | 15,165 | 8,816 | 63.3% | 36.7% |
| Dublin North-West | 50,742 | 43.4% | 11,916 | 10,018 | 54.4% | 45.6% |
| Dublin South | 79,614 | 53.7% | 31,614 | 11,074 | 74.1% | 25.9% |
| Dublin South-Central | 76,743 | 45.6% | 21,313 | 13,574 | 61.1% | 38.9% |
| Dublin South-East | 68,638 | 42.2% | 19,542 | 9,305 | 67.8% | 32.2% |
| Dublin South-West | 62,489 | 41.2% | 15,177 | 10,513 | 59.1% | 40.9% |
| Dublin West | 77,363 | 42.1% | 19,994 | 12,537 | 61.5% | 38.5% |
| Dún Laoghaire | 78,721 | 53.1% | 31,821 | 9,914 | 76.3% | 23.7% |
| Galway East | 42,491 | 39.5% | 13,897 | 2,823 | 83.2% | 16.8% |
| Galway West | 78,785 | 36.2% | 20,817 | 7,571 | 73.4% | 26.6% |
| Kerry North | 46,427 | 38.8% | 10,709 | 7,201 | 59.8% | 40.2% |
| Kerry South | 42,565 | 40.9% | 11,560 | 5,778 | 66.7% | 33.3% |
| Kildare | 76,003 | 42.5% | 23,685 | 8,514 | 73.6% | 26.4% |
| Laois–Offaly | 75,693 | 41.3% | 22,758 | 8,332 | 73.3% | 26.7% |
| Limerick East | 68,065 | 44.0% | 21,350 | 8,517 | 71.5% | 28.5% |
| Limerick West | 43,146 | 45.8% | 15,846 | 3,836 | 80.6% | 19.4% |
| Longford–Westmeath | 61,589 | 39.9% | 18,686 | 5,729 | 76.6% | 23.4% |
| Louth | 62,545 | 44.4% | 19,397 | 8,270 | 70.2% | 29.8% |
| Mayo East | 41,117 | 40.0% | 13,406 | 2,946 | 82.0% | 18.0% |
| Mayo West | 40,895 | 39.0% | 12,779 | 3,057 | 80.7% | 19.3% |
| Meath | 75,382 | 43.1% | 23,822 | 8,502 | 73.7% | 26.3% |
| Roscommon | 41,329 | 42.6% | 14,001 | 3,494 | 80.1% | 19.9% |
| Sligo–Leitrim | 59,608 | 45.0% | 20,110 | 6,540 | 75.5% | 24.5% |
| Tipperary North | 41,507 | 46.6% | 14,343 | 4,888 | 74.6% | 25.4% |
| Tipperary South | 55,560 | 46.4% | 19,180 | 6,464 | 74.8% | 25.2% |
| Waterford | 60,409 | 45.2% | 18,442 | 8,688 | 68.0% | 32.0% |
| Wexford | 69,773 | 44.2% | 22,208 | 8,524 | 72.3% | 27.7% |
| Wicklow | 65,393 | 45.9% | 20,784 | 9,163 | 69.5% | 30.5% |
| Total | 2,461,790 | 44.1% | 755,423 | 324,977 | 69.9% | 30.1% |
The Single European Act came into effect on 1 July 1987 after Ireland had ratified it.
Because of the decision of the Supreme Court in Crotty v An Taoiseach , the constitution would need to be amended on every further occasion before a treaty could be ratified that would transfer sovereignty from the Irish government to a supranational authority. This has since occurred on the following occasions:
The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing a single market by 31 December 1992, and a forerunner of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) it helped codify European Political Co-operation. The amending treaty was signed at Luxembourg City on 17 February 1986 and at The Hague on 28 February 1986. It came into effect on 1 July 1987, under the Delors Commission.
The Third Amendment of the Constitution Act 1972 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland that permitted the State to join the European Communities, which would later become the European Union, and provided that European Community law would take precedence over the constitution. It was approved by referendum on 10 May 1972, and signed into law by the President of Ireland Éamon de Valera on 8 June of the same year.
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1983 was an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which inserted a subsection recognising "the equal right to life of the pregnant woman and the unborn". Abortion had been subject to criminal penalty in Ireland since at least 1861; the amendment ensured that legislation or judicial interpretation would be restricted to allowing abortion in circumstances where the life of a pregnant woman was at risk. It was approved by referendum on 7 September 1983 and signed into law on 7 October 1983. In 2018, it was repealed by 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 Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 1992 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to ratify the Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty. It was approved by referendum on 18 June 1992 and signed into law on 16 July of the same year.
The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1998 is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to ratify the Treaty of Amsterdam. It was approved by referendum on 22 May 1998 and signed into law on the 3 June of the same year. The referendum was held on the same day as the referendum on Nineteenth Amendment, which related to approval of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2001 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which provided constitutional recognition of local government and required that local government elections occur at least once in every five years. It was approved by referendum on 11 June 1999 and signed into law on 23 June of the same year. The referendum was held the same day as the local and European Parliament elections.
The Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution Act 2001 is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which introduced a constitutional ban on the death penalty and removed all references to capital punishment from the text. It was approved by referendum on 7 June 2001 and signed into law on 27 March 2002. The referendum was held on the same day as referendums on the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was also approved, and on the ratification of the Nice Treaty, which was rejected.
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.
The Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2002 is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to ratify the Treaty of Nice. It was approved by referendum on 19 October 2002 and signed into law on 7 November of the same year. The amendment followed a previous failed attempt to approve the Nice Treaty which was rejected in the first Nice referendum held in 2001.
Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland are only possible by way of referendum. A proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland must be initiated as a bill in Dáil Éireann, be passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally signed into law by the president of Ireland. Since the constitution entered into force on 29 December 1937, there have been 32 amendments to the constitution.
The Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to be bound by the British–Irish Agreement and enabled the establishment of shared political institutions between Ireland and Northern Ireland. It also provided a mechanism for a further amendment to the Constitution upon a declaration by the government on the implementation of the Agreement, most notably by changing Articles 2 and 3 from the previous claim over the whole island of Ireland to an aspiration towards creating a united Ireland by peaceful means, "with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island".
In Ireland, direct elections by universal suffrage are used for the President, the ceremonial head of state; for Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas or parliament; for the European Parliament; and for local government. All elections use proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV) in constituencies returning three or more members, except that the presidential election and by-elections use the single-winner analogue of STV, elsewhere called instant-runoff voting or the alternative vote. Members of Seanad Éireann, the second house of the Oireachtas, are partly nominated, partly indirectly elected, and partly elected by graduates of particular universities.
The European Communities Act 1972 is an act of the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas, that incorporates the treaties and law of the European Union into the domestic law of Ireland. The Act did not just incorporate the law of the European Communities which existed at the time of its enactment, but incorporates legislative acts of the Community enacted subsequently. The Act also provides that government ministers may adopt statutory instruments (SIs) to implement EU law, and that those SIs are to have effect as if they were acts of parliament.
Crotty v An Taoiseach was a landmark 1987 decision of the Irish Supreme Court which found that Ireland could not ratify the Single European Act unless the Irish Constitution was first changed to permit its ratification. The case, taken by Raymond Crotty formally against the Taoiseach, directly led to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland and established that significant changes to European Union treaties required an amendment to the Irish constitution before they could be ratified by Ireland. As a consequence, Ireland, uniquely in the EU, requires a plebiscite for every new, or substantive change to a, European Union Treaty.
Three referendums were held simultaneously in Ireland on 7 June 2001, each on a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. Two of the measures were approved, while the third was rejected. The two successful amendments concerned the death penalty and the International Criminal Court.
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-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2008 was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland that was put to a referendum in 2008. The purpose of the proposed amendment was to allow the state to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon of the European Union.
The Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2009 is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon of the European Union. It was approved by referendum on 2 October 2009.
The ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon was officially completed by all member states of the European Union on 13 November 2009 when the Czech Republic deposited its instrument of ratification with the Italian government. The Lisbon Treaty came into force on the first day of the month following the deposition of the last instrument of ratification with the government of Italy, which was 1 December 2009.
