Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

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Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
Flag of Ireland.svg
10 May 1972 (1972-05-10)
To permit the state to join the European Communities
Results
Choice
Votes %
Check-71-128-204-brightblue.svgYes1,041,89083.10%
Light brown x.svgNo211,89116.90%
Valid votes1,253,78199.17%
Invalid or blank votes10,4970.83%
Total votes1,264,278100.00%
Registered voters/turnout1,783,60470.88%

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.

Contents

The incorporation of the law of the European Communities into Irish domestic law was put into effect by the European Communities Act 1972, which became law on the day Ireland acceded to the European Communities on 1 January 1973.

Background

Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands formed the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. In 1957, the same six countries formed the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community. Together, these were known as the European Communities and shared common institutions.

In 1961, Ireland applied to join the European Communities. This application was withdrawn after President of France Charles de Gaulle exercised a veto in respect of the application of the United Kingdom. A second application was made in 1967, and in 1972, the six member states signed a Treaty of Accession with Denmark, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom. As Ireland had no nuclear power programme, nor any important coal and steel industries, membership of the Communities primarily concerned the European Economic Community.

In Costa v ENEL (1964), the European Court of Justice established the primacy of European Community law. Therefore, an amendment was needed in order to avoid a conflict with the Constitution of Ireland, which had granted powers exclusively to the Oireachtas (parliament) and the Government of Ireland. It was also possible that many provisions of the Constitution might be found to be incompatible with European law.

Changes to the text

Addition of a new subsection to Article 29.4 of the Constitution:

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). 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.

Oireachtas debate

The Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1971 was introduced in the Dáil by Tánaiste Erskine H. Childers of Fianna Fáil. [1] Among the opposition parties, it was supported by Fine Gael and opposed by the Labour Party. At the Second Stage debates, it was moved by Taoiseach Jack Lynch. [2] The Labour Party sought to defeat the reading of the bill at second stage; a government motion to prevent this passed by 106 votes to 17, and the bill proceeded to Committee Stage. [3] At Committee Stage, the government accepted a Fine Gael amendment to the final sentence. As initiated, this sentence had begun, "No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State consequent on membership of the Communities […]"; the amendment replaced the words highlighted in bold with the words "necessitated by the obligations of". [4] [5] It passed all stages in the Dáil on 26 January 1972. [6] It passed all stages in the Seanad on 8 March 1972. [7]

Views on accession

As well as parties represented in the Oireachtas, accession was also supported by employers' and farmers' interest groups.[ citation needed ] Then President Éamon de Valera privately opposed the state's entry and voted 'no', citing the loss of sovereignty. [8]

Official Sinn Féin (now the Workers Party) opposed the state's entry, citing anti-imperialism and calling the EC a "rich man's club". [9] [10] Provisional Sinn Féin (now Sinn Féin) also opposed the entry, saying it would undermine Irish sovereignty and that the "Common Market Empire would threaten Irish ownership of Irish land". [10]

Result

The Third Amendment was approved with 83.1% in favour to 16.9% against. [11] It was the first amendment to the Constitution to be approved by Irish voters in a referendum.

Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland referendum
ChoiceVotes %
Check-71-128-204-brightblue.svg Yes1,041,89083.09
No211,89116.91
Valid votes1,253,78199.17
Invalid or blank votes10,4970.83
Total votes1,264,278100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,783,60470.88
Results by constituency [11]
ConstituencyElectorateTurnout (%)VotesProportion of votes
YesNoYesNo
Carlow–Kilkenny 59,41574.6%36,5887,27883.4%16.6%
Cavan 37,22974.3%24,2663,17888.4%11.6%
Clare 39,41367.4%22,8333,51086.7%13.3%
Clare–South Galway 34,82072.1%22,0272,85588.5%11.5%
Cork City North-West 36,11570.1%21,2083,99584.3%15.7%
Cork City South-East 36,47675.4%22,8874,49283.6%16.4%
Cork Mid 49,40277.3%31,9626,05084.1%15.9%
Cork North-East 50,01676.6%32,4395,54485.4%14.6%
Cork South-West 38,28574.3%24,5533,68087.0%13.0%
Donegal North-East 37,92465.6%22,5542,03091.7%8.3%
Donegal–Leitrim 38,54067.8%22,0053,90884.9%15.1%
Dublin Central 46,77562.7%22,2896,75076.8%23.2%
Dublin County North 58,76168.7%32,0048,12579.8%20.2%
Dublin County South 45,28972.7%26,8385,90182.0%18.0%
Dublin North-Central 49,07368.2%26,2577,02878.9%21.1%
Dublin North-East 55,48373.4%31,6378,93078.0%22.0%
Dublin North-West 44,36967.0%22,4946,97876.3%23.7%
Dublin South-Central 50,40067.5%25,7667,95576.4%23.6%
Dublin South-East 37,84068.0%20,8594,69281.6%18.4%
Dublin South-West 41,74065.5%19,8937,34473.0%27.0%
Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown 56,15172.6%34,1026,47484.0%16.0%
Galway North-East 34,35869.3%21,3982,28390.4%9.6%
Galway West 35,99962.0%17,4004,80678.4%21.6%
Kerry North 37,01867.2%18,5006,06475.3%24.7%
Kerry South 36,39166.9%19,2374,89079.7%20.3%
Kildare 40,06570.0%23,2134,59983.5%16.5%
Laois–Offaly 56,34474.2%35,7285,82386.0%14.0%
Limerick East 47,00172.6%25,9577,28078.1%21.9%
Limerick West 35,90474.1%22,9713,43287.0%13.0%
Longford–Westmeath 47,09570.7%28,2104,71385.7%14.3%
Louth 40,27872.2%24,6234,18785.5%14.5%
Mayo East 34,81066.9%20,6912,42289.5%10.5%
Mayo West 34,10663.6%19,1572,33289.1%10.9%
Meath 39,04073.4%23,7654,60583.8%16.2%
Monaghan 36,21473.8%23,1793,33087.4%12.6%
Roscommon–Leitrim 37,68270.7%22,9643,37587.2%12.8%
Sligo–Leitrim 38,04970.4%22,9153,59886.4%13.6%
Tipperary North 34,75476.7%22,1474,28683.8%16.2%
Tipperary South 46,12776.6%29,3435,63883.9%16.1%
Waterford 39,51373.9%24,0864,96482.9%17.1%
Wexford 49,88172.2%28,6357,10580.1%19.9%
Wicklow 39,38971.1%22,3105,50280.2%19.8%
Total1,783,60470.9%1,041,890211,89183.1%16.9%

Aftermath and later developments

The European Communities Act 1972 was signed into law on 6 December 1972. This provided a legislative basis for the primacy and direct effect of European Community law. On 1 January 1973, Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom became member states of the European Communities (Norway had rejected membership in a referendum).

Unlike in the United Kingdom where the issue of membership to the European Communities was the subject of fierce political debate for decades which would eventually lead to Brexit in 2020 after a referendum was held in 2016 which ended 47 years of British membership in Ireland the outcome of the referendum on the Third Amendment immediately settled the issue of Ireland's place in Europe amongst both the Irish people and its politicians and in the decades that followed Irish support for continued membership would in fact continue to grow.

In Crotty v. An Taoiseach (1987), the Supreme Court of Ireland held that further transfer of power to the European Communities that were not in themselves necessitated by membership of the European Communities (in that instance, approval of the Single European Act) would require further amendments to the Constitution, and therefore require approval by referendum. Subsequent changes to the Treaties of the European Communities and later of the European Union have also required amendments to the Constitution, and therefore have required approval by referendum. These amendments have substantially altered the initial wording of 29.4.3° as inserted by the Third Amendment. in particular, the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland approved in 2009, allowing the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, created a different structure to the subsections in Article 29.4.

In later years the various European organisations (with the exception of EAEC) were integrated by the ratification of subsequent treaties into the European Union.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: First Stage". Houses of the Oireachtas. 23 November 1971. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: Second Stage". Houses of the Oireachtas. 2 December 1971. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: Second Stage (Resumed)". Houses of the Oireachtas. 9 December 1971. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  4. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: Committee Stage". Houses of the Oireachtas. 25 January 1972. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: Committee Stage (Resumed)". Houses of the Oireachtas. 26 January 1972. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: Report and Final Stages". Houses of the Oireachtas. 26 January 1972. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  7. ↑ "Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1971: Report and Final Stages". Houses of the Oireachtas. 8 March 1972. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  8. ↑ Éamon de Valera, Ronan Fanning, p. 259.
  9. ↑ Sean Swan (2008). Official Irish Republicanism: 1962–1972. Lulu.com. ISBN   9781430319344 . Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  10. 1 2 "After 41 years of shifting battlelines, the Brexit vote for Northern Ireland is a very tough one to call". Belfast Telegraph. 23 May 2016. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  11. 1 2 "Referendum Results 1937–2015" (PDF). Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government . 23 August 2016. p. 27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 December 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
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