ROLE OF THE PRESIDENT & THE OIREACHTAS IN LAW MAKING

Role of the President & the Oireachtas in Law Making

Role of the President & the Oireachtas in Law Making

Introduction

The practiced system of government in the Republic of Ireland is representative democracy and parliament; the representative democracy allows the people to choose their own representatives to participate in the democratic system of government, and the parliamentary system ensures that the government gets selected by the Legislature/Parliamentary body. The selected government consists of the President and the Prime Minister, and the prime minister enjoys the supreme political and governmental control over the state. The prime minister is commonly known as the Taoiseach in Ireland.

The legislative body (national parliament) in Ireland is also known as the Oireachtas Éireann. It encompasses the President of the state and the upper & lower houses (also known as the Dáil Éireann and the Seanad Éireann respectively). The upper house serves as the House of Representatives while the lower house serves as the Senate. Oireachtas was established under Article 15 of the Irish Constitution, which was established in 1937 (Kelly 2003, p.254). “The House of Oireachtas” is the official name given to the two houses in the Oireachtas (Oireachtas.ie n.d., p.n.d.).

The Dáil Éireann gets renewed by elections after every five years. The election system for this house consists of representation in proportions through the STV (single transferable vote). The elections take place for constituencies consisting of multiple seats. It is the most dominant component of the legislature. Qualification for membership includes Irish citizenship, the minimum age of 21 years, and permanent residence in the country. However, to be eligible to vote in the elections, the minimum age is 18 years, with either Irish or British nationality. The Irish name for members of the Dáil is TD (Teachta Dála). A total of 166 TD's are currently serving the Dáil, and the existing Chairman has gotten re-elected. Members of the Dáil include the Taoiseach, the Finance Minister and the deputy head of government (Tánaiste). It is the sole authority for introducing and amending financial and taxation related bills. Contrary to earlier times, there has been no political dominance in the Dáil since the early 1990s.

The Senate in Ireland, Seanad Éireann consists of 60 senators, who get elected through voting after a maximum of 90 days after the legislative elections for the Dáil have taken place. Of those 60 senators, 11 are elected by the prime minister, 6 come through national universities, and the rest (43) are elected from a special panel. The elections for the special panel consist of the previous Senate's 60 members, all the TDs of the newly formed Dáil and the 883 members representing the local government in city and county councils. The Senate can exercise the authority to delay the proposals for legislatures and also gets a total duration of 90 days for making necessary amendments in bills issued by the Dáil. However, this does not apply to the monetary bills - for that, it gets only 21 ...