Government & Politics

The state is a republic, with a parliamentary system of government. The President of Ireland, who serves as head of state, is elected for a seven-year term and can be re-elected only once. The president is largely a figurehead but can still carry out certain constitutional powers and functions, aided by the Council of State, an advisory body. The Taoiseach (prime minister), is appointed by the president on the nomination of parliament. The Taoiseach is normally the leader of the political party which wins the most seats in the national elections. It has become normal in the Republic for coalitions to form a government, and there has not been a single-party government since 1989.

The bicameral parliament, the Oireachtas, consists of a Senate, Seanad Éireann, and a lower house, Dáil Éireann. The Seanad is composed of sixty members; eleven nominated by the Taoiseach, six elected by two universities, and 43 elected by public representatives from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis. The Dáil has 166 members, Teachtaí Dála, elected to represent multi-seat constituencies under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote. Under the constitution, parliamentary elections must be held at least every seven years, though a lower limit may be set by statute law. The current statutory maximum term is every five years.

Leinster House, the seat of Oireachtas Éireann (the Irish parliament).The Government is constitutionally limited to fifteen members. No more than two members of the Government can be selected from the Senate, and the Taoiseach, Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Finance must be members of the Dáil. The current government consists of a coalition of three parties; Fianna Fáil under Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the Green Party under new leader John Gormley and the Progressive Democrats under Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney. The last scheduled general election to the Dáil took place on 24 May 2007, after it was called by the Taoiseach on 29th April.

The main opposition in the current Dáil consists of Fine Gael under Enda Kenny, The Labour Party under new leader Eamon Gilmore and Sinn Féin. A number of independent deputies also sit in Dáil Éireann though less in number than before the recent election.

Ireland joined the European Union in 1973 but has chosen to remain outside the Schengen Treaty. Citizens of the UK can freely enter Ireland without a passport thanks to the Common Travel Area, however some form of identification is required at airports and seaports.

Foreign Relations

The foreign relations of the Republic of Ireland are substantially influenced by its membership of the European Union, although bilateral relations with the United States and United Kingdom are also important to the country. It is one of the group of smaller nations in the EU, and has traditionally followed a non-aligned foreign policy.

Ireland tends towards independence in foreign policy, thus it is not a member of NATO and has a longstanding policy of military neutrality. This policy has helped the Irish Defence Forces to be successful in their contributions to UN peace-keeping missions since 1960 (in the Congo Crisis) and subsequently in Cyprus, Lebanon and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ireland is consistently the most pro-European of EU member states, with 77% of the population approving of EU membership according to a Eurobarometer poll in 2006.[1] The state was a founding member of the euro single currency. In May 2004, Ireland was one of only three countries to open its borders to workers from the 10 new member states. EU issues important to Ireland include the Common Agricultural Policy, corporation tax harmonization and the EU Constitution.

The use of Shannon Airport as a stop-over point for US forces en-route to Iraq has caused domestic controversy. Opponents of this policy brought an unsuccessful High Court case against the government in 2003, arguing that this use of Irish airspace violated Irish neutrality. Foreign direct investment by U.S. companies is vital to the Irish economy — the U.S. is Ireland's largest source of foreign investment, and exports to the U.S. amounted to 10% of GDP in 2005. The large Irish-American population in the United States strengthens ties between the two countries.

The U.S. government has appointed a Special Envoy to Northern Ireland to help with the Northern Ireland peace process. As of 2006, this position is held by Mitchell Reiss. Areas of interest between the U.S. and Ireland include the Northern Ireland peace process, the status of Irish illegal immigrants in the U.S. and investment by U.S. companies in Ireland.

Since independence, the state had been involved in a dispute with the United Kingdom over the status of Northern Ireland. Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland used to claim Northern Ireland as a part of the "national territory", though in practice the Irish government did recognise the UK's jurisdiction over the region. With the onset of the Troubles in 1969, the Irish government sought an accommodation with the British government to bring the violence to an end. Following the burning of the British embassy in Dublin in 1972, the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973 and the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 were important steps in this process. In 1998, both nations signed the Belfast Agreement and now co-operate closely to find a solution to the region's problems. Articles 2 and 3 were amended as part of this agreement, the territorial claim being replaced with a statement of aspiration to unite the people of the island of Ireland.

The Irish Government has sought, with mixed success, to prevent the importation of weapons and ammunition through the state by the illegal IRA, for use in their conflict with the security forces in Northern Ireland. In the 1970s the Irish warship, the LÉ Ciara intercepted a ship carrying weapons from Libya which were more than likely destined for the republican paramilitaries. Law enforcement acts such as these additionally improved relations with the government of the United Kingdom. However, the independent judiciary blocked many attempts to extradite suspects between 1970 and 1998 on the basis that their crime might have been 'political'.

The state is also a party to the Rockall continental shelf dispute that also involves Denmark, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. The Republic and the United Kingdom have signed a boundary agreement in the Rockall area. However, neither have concluded similar agreements with Iceland or Denmark (on behalf of the Faroe Islands) and the matter remains under negotiation. Iceland now claims a substantial area of the continental shelf to the west of Ireland, to a point 49°48'N 19°00'W, which is further south than Ireland.

The controversial Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in western England has been a contentious issue between the two governments. The Irish government has sought the closure of the plant, taking a case against the UK government under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the European Court of Justice found that the case should have been dealt with under EU law.

Law

The Republic of Ireland has a common law legal system with a written constitution which provides for a parliamentary democracy based on the British parliamentary system albeit with a popularly elected president, a separation of powers, a developed system of constitutional rights and judicial review.

The sources of Irish Law reflect Irish history and the various parliaments whose law affected the country down through the ages. Notable omissions from the list include laws passed by the first and second Dáil, and the Brehon Laws (traditional Celtic laws, the practice of which was only finally wiped out during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland). These latter laws are void of legal significance and are of historical interest only.

The Irish Constitution was enacted by a popular plebiscite held on 1 July 1937, and came into force on December 29 of the same year. The Constitution is the corner-stone of the Irish legal system and is held to be the source of power exercised by the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. The Irish Supreme Court and High Court exercise judicial review over all legislation and may strike down laws if they are inconsistent with the constitution. As such the constitution is the truly distinguishing characteristic of the Irish legal system when compared to its British cousin.

When the Irish Free State was created on 6 December 1922 the Constitution of the Irish Free State carried over all legislation which had applied to the twenty-six counties subject to its consistency with that Constitution. Article 50 of the Constitution of Ireland fulfilled the same task when than latter constitution came into force on 29 December 1937. Thus at no point in newly independent Ireland was it ever intended to start the statute book afresh. Consequently the Irish statute book stretches back some 800 years and includes law passed by the pre-Union English Parliament and by the Parliament of Great Britain applied to Ireland by Poynings' Act 1495. As well as Acts of Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Parliament signed into law between 1 January 1800 and 5 December 1922 (inclusive) which on their terms applied to Ireland. One of the consequence of this is that laws such as De donis conditionalibus, 1285 and the Statute of Frauds, 1695 are still in force.

In the Republic secondary legislation can only be enacted under an authorising statute. The government cannot enact legislation by decree, such as is done by the British government in the form of Orders in Council. While all secondary legislation are known as statutory instruments, only significant legislative acts — i.e. those which are required to be laid before parliament or which are of general application — are numbered as statutory instruments and published by the Stationary Office. Secondary legislation cannot introduce new principles and policies but merely give effect to the principles and policies of the parent Act.

As with any common law system, the Irish courts are bound by the doctrine of Stare decisis to apply clear precedents set by the higher courts. This extends to the decisions of higher courts made before independence such as decisions made by the House of Lords and the Irish Court of Appeal.

The European Communities Act, 1972, as amended, provides that Treaties of the European Union are part of Irish law, along with directly effective measures adopted under those treaties. It also provides that government ministers may adopt statutory instruments in order to implement European Union law and that as an exception to the general rule such statutory instruments have effect as if they were primary legislation.

Under the Constitution, while the state is guided by the generally recognised principles of international law this has been held not to be justiciable. Ireland is a dualist state and treaties are not part of its domestic law unless incorporated by the Oireachtas. An example of incorporation is the Refugee Act 1996.

Under the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, the European Convention on Human Rights direct legal effect in the State. While applications can be made to the European Court of Human Rights following final judicial decisions, that court is not part of the Irish legal system as such, and nor is the UN Human Rights Committee or other such bodies.