
An amendment may be made to any part of Constitution of Ireland, the constitution of the Republic of Ireland, but only by referendum. An amendment must first be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally signed into law by the President of Ireland. Aside from constitutional referenda, the constitution also provides, in extraordinary circumstances, for a referendum on a normal bill (proposed law) known as the ordinary referendum, but none has yet occurred. ==Procedure== ===Referendum=== The procedure for amending the constitution is specified in Article 46. A proposed amendment must take the form of a bill to amend the constitution originating in Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament). It must first be ''formally'' approved by both the Dail and the Seanad Éireann in practice the Senate only has the power to delay an amendment adopted by the Dáil. Then it must be endorsed by the electorate in a referendum. A simple majority is sufficient to carry an amendment and there is no minimum turn-out required for a constitutional referendum to be considered valid. The vote occurs by secret ballot. A proposal to amend the constitution put to a referendum must not contain any other proposal. While United Kingdom citizens resident in the state may vote in a general election, only Irish citizens can participate in a referendum. After being approved by referendum an amendment must be signed into law by the President. However, this is merely a formality as, provided the correct procedure has been complied with, the President cannot veto an amendment. The dates given for the amendments listed in this article are (unless otherwise stated) the dates on which each amendment was signed into law. ===Historical methods=== Historically the constitution has also been amended by two other means. The Transitory Provisions that formed a part of the constitution at its adoption in 1937 provided that for an initial four year period (from 1937-1941) the document could be amended by a simple act of the Oireachtas. The First and Second Amendments were adopted in this way. However, as a safeguard to prevent the wholescale change of the document after it has been approved ''en bloc'' by the people, the President of Ireland, was given the right to decline to sign a Bill amending the constitution until the amendment had been voted on by the people, if he believed the amendment materially changed the whole constitution. The President in office, Douglas Hyde, did not however refer any amendment directly to the people, but instead chose to sign all Oireachtas-passed amendments directly into law. The constitution stated that this power, and indeed the Oireachtas's power to amend the constitution without automatic reference to the people, automatically lapsed three years after the entry into office of the first president. Since 1941, on the third anniversary of President Hyde's election when the Transitional Provisions lapsed, every amendment must follow a set process of creation: passage through the Oireachtas, followed by a public referendum. One partial exception to this, however, were the changes made to Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland of the constitution in 1999. The Nineteenth Amendment, adopted by referendum in May, 1998, did not itself amend those articles but rather introduced, on a temporary basis, a special mechanism whereby the Irish Government could order their amendment once it was satisfied that certain commitments made by other parties to the Belfast Agreement had been complied with. ==List of amendments== ===Under Transitory Provisions=== *First Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1939): Extend the definition of "time of war" to include a war in which the state is not a participant. The motive behind this amendment was to allow the Government to exercise emergency powers during the World War II, in which the state was neutral. *Second Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1941): This was an omnibus amendment to a variety of articles aimed at introducing a variety of changes to the document, some significant and others minor, while still possible without the need for a referendum. ===By referendum=== *Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1972): Permitted the state to join the European Communities. *Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (5th January, 1973): Reduced minimum voting age from 21 to 18. *Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (5th Jan, 1973): Removed reference to "special position" of the Catholic Church and to certain other named denominations. *Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1979): Provided that orders made by the Adoption Board could not be declared unconstitutional because they were not made by a court. *Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1979): Allowed the state to determine by law which institutions of higher education would be entitled to elect members of the Seanad Eireann. *Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1983): Introduced the constitutional prohibition of abortion. *Ninth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1984): Extended the right to vote to certain non-nationals. *Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1987): Permitted the state to ratify the Single European Act. *Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (July, 1992): Permitted the state to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. *Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (3rd December, 1992): Specified that the prohibition of abortion would not limit freedom of travel in and out of the state. *Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (23rd December, 1992): Specified that the prohibition of abortion would not limit the right to distribute information about abortion services in foreign countries. *Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (June, 1996): Removed the constitutional prohibition of divorce, but retained certain restrictions on its occurrence. *Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (Dec, 1996): Allowed a court to refuse someone bail if it suspected they would commit a criminal offence while at liberty. *Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1997): Introduced provisions related to the confidentiality of cabinet meetings. This became protected unless, in certain circumstances, the High Court orders otherwise. *Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (3rd June, 1998): Allowed the state to ratify the Amsterdam Treaty. *Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (3rd June, 1998): Provided for the amendment of Articles 2 and 3 as required by the Belfast Agreement. *Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1999): Provided that local government elections must occur every five years. *Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (27th March, 2002): Introduced the constitutional prohibition of the death penalty, and also removed all incidental references to the death penalty from the text. *Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (27th March, 2002): Allowed the state to ratify the Statute of the International Criminal Court. *Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (November, 2002): Allowed the state to ratify the Nice Treaty. *Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (24th June, 2004): restricted the right to Irish citizenship. =='Missing' amendments== It should be noted that there is officially no 12th, 22nd, 24th or 25th Amendment. This has occurred for a number of reasons; one is that the formal title of an amendment cannot be altered once it has been adopted by the houses of the Oireachtas. This means that where a number of amendments are put to the electorate on the same day, and one is rejected, an amendment number may be 'skipped'. In November 1992 three proposed amendments were put to the people: the 12th, 13th and 14th. The proposed 12th Amendment was defeated but the 13th and 14th Amendments, which were approved, could not then be renamed. ==List of failed amendments== *Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1958: This was a proposal to alter the electoral system for elections to Dáil Éireann from proportional representation under the Single Transferable Vote to the British 'First Past the Post' system. It also proposed to establish an independent commission for the drawing of constituency boundaries on a constitutional basis. It was put to a referendum on 17th June, 1959 but defeated. *Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968: This proposed to specify more precisely the system of apportionment in the drawing of constituency boundaries. It would have permitted rural constituencies to elected a disproportionate number of TD (parliament)s (MPs). The proposal was put to a referendum on 16th October, 1968 but rejected. *Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968 (1968): This was a second attempt to alter the electoral system by abolishing proportional representation in favour of 'First Past the Post'. It was submitted to a referendum on the same day as the Third Amendment Bill and defeated. *Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1986: This proposed to remove the constitutional ban on divorce. It was put to a referendum on 26th June, 1986 but defeated. The ban on divorce was eventually lifted by the Fifteenth Amendment in 1996. *Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill (1992): This proposed to strengthen the constitutional ban on abortion by stating that an abortion could not be procured to protect the health, rather than the life, of the mother, and that risk to the life of the mother from suicide could not be grounds for an abortion. This was put to a referendum on 25th November, 1992 but defeated. *Twenty-second Amendment of the Constiution Bill (2001): This proposed to establish a body for the investigation of judges and to amend the procedure for the removal of judges. It was not passed by the houses of the Oireachtas. *Twenty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill (2001): Would have allowed the state to ratify the Nice Treaty. This was rejected in a referendum on 7th June, 2001. Voters reversed this decision when they adopted the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 2002. *Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution Bill (2002): This was a second attempt to strengthen the constitutional ban on abortion and to prevent risk of suicide being invoked as grounds for an abortion. It was submitted to a referendum on 6th March, 2002 but defeated. ==List of referenda== The following is a list of every referendum in the state since 19371. The Constitution of Ireland was approved by plebiscite in July, 1937 and every subsequent referendum has concerned a constitutional amendment. Dates given are those on which referenda were held.
==Major subjects== ===The European Union=== A number of amendments to the Constitution of Ireland have related to the European Union (and its predecessors). Before the state could join the European Communities the Third Amendment was necessary. Membership granted powers to European institutions which the 1937 constitution had vested in the Oireachtas (parliament) and the Government. It was also possible that many provisions of the constitution might in the future be found to be incompatible with EU law. For these reasons the Third Amendment introduced a provision expressly permitting the state to joing the Communities and stating in broad terms that European law has supremacy over the constitution. A number of subsequent amendments have been made to expressly permit the state to ratify changes to the treaties of the EU. This is because of a 1987 ruling by the Irish Supreme Court, in the case of ''Crotty v. An Taoiseach'', that major changes to the EU treaties require a constitutional amendment. Referenda have therefore been held on the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty, the Amsterdam Treaty and the Treaty of Nice. There has however, been debate among legal scholars as to whether or not each and every one of these treaties has been sufficiently far reaching as to necessitate a constitutional amendment. ===Abortion=== The Eighth Amendment introduced the constitutional prohibition on abortion in 1983. Opponents of abortion sought this amendment partly because of fears that the Irish Supreme Court would in the future infer an implicit right to an abortion in the provisions of the constitution. The court had already ruled, in the 1974 case of ''McGee v. The Attorney General'', that reference in Article 41 to the "imprescriptable rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law" of the family conferred upon spouses a broad right to privacy in marital affairs. It was feared that this right might be extended to include the right to an abortion. There was further concern that the Supreme Court might take its lead from developments in judicial review in other nations, such as the controversial ruling of the United States Supreme Court in the 1973 case of ''Roe v. Wade''. It was observed at the time of the adoption of the constitutional prohibition of abortion that its wording was very vague. Since its adoption a number of attempts have been made to modify the constitution in order to clarify the ban's precise implications. In particular there have been two failed attempts (in 1992 and 2002) to strengthen the ban, but two successful attempts to weaken its implications (both in December 1992). The two failed amendments arose from a ruling of the Supreme Court in March 1992, in the case of the ''Attorney General v. X'' (more commonly known as the "X case"), that a mother is entitled to an abortion where there is a risk to her life from suicide. Opponents of abortion feared that this ruling could only be enforced in a way that would lead to a liberal abortion regime of the kind found in many other countries, such as the United Kingdom, but this has not yet come to pass (although the government has yet to legislate for the implications of the 'X' case). The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments guaranteed that the ban on abortion would not compromise the right to obtain information about, or freedom of travel to avail of, abortion services available abroad. ==Previous constitutions== Prior to the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, the state was governed under two other documents: the Dáil Constitution of the short-lived 1919-1922 Irish Republic and the constitution of the 1922-1937 Irish Free State. Each used different formal procedures for amendment of the text. The Dáil Constitution was enacted by Dáil Éireann (which was at that time a single chamber legislature) as an ordinary act of parliament. As a result it could be amended by simple vote of the legislature. The Constitution of the Irish Free State originally provided for a process of amendment by means of a referendum. However the constitution could initially be amended by the Free State Oireachtas for eight years. The Oireachtas chose to extent that period, meaning that for the duration of its existence, the Free State constitution could be amended at will by parliament. In theory, it was argued that the constitution could not be amended in a way with conflicted with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 ratified by both the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. However the Statute of Westminster 1931 and legal judgments removed that restriction in the 1930s. ==Footnote== # The "total poll" column in the table below gives the total number of votes cast, including spoilt votes. The percentages given in the "for" and "against" columns are derived from the total number of valid, or unspoilt votes. A green coloured row indicates a proposal approved by the electorate; red indicates a rejected measure. All data are taken from the official website of the Referendum Returning Officer [http://www.referendum.ie]. ==Related topics== *Politics of the Republic of Ireland *Abortion in Ireland *Constitutional amendment ==External links== *[http://www.referendum.ie www.Referendum.ie] - official website of the Referendum Returning Officer. Includes an archive of referendum statistics. *[http://www.johnpghall.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ The Unabridged Constitution of Ireland] - this is an unofficial variorum edition with amendments alongside the original text. It is only accurate up until the Twentieth Amendment in 1999. *[http://www.ucc.ie/law/irlii/index.php Irish Legal Information Initiative] *[http://www.irishstatutebook.ie IrishStatuteBook.ie] Irish constitutional lawAmendments of the Constitution of Ireland
== "Amendments to" Vs. "Amendments of"== Shouldn't the title be 'Amendments ''to'' the constitution of Ireland'? User:Mel Etitis (Μελ_Ετητης)">User talk:Mel Etitis 21:51, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) It should indeed. I'll rename it. (I knew ''something'' about the page didn't look right, but I couldn't recognise what! Of course ''of'' should be ''to''. Well spotted. User:Jtdirl 00:07, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :You're not exactly right about this fellas so please don't move the article. If you look at the titles and provisions of the various constitutional amendment acts they all use "amendments of" rather than "to". So, for example, the act for the most recent Twenty-seventh Amendment provides in section 2 (my italics added): ::(1) The amendment ''of'' the Constitution effected by this Act shall be called the Twenty-seventh Amendment ''of'' the Constitution. ::(2) This Act may be cited as the Twenty-seventh Amendment ''of'' the Constitution Act 2004. :Of course the practice in the United States is "amendments to". I would be interested to know why the custom has evolved this way in Ireland and whether or not any other country has "amendments of" its constitution. :User:Iota 03:53, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) OK — though I wasn't going on U.S. usage, just normal English. It's not that I think 'amendment of' is wrong, it's just that 'amendment to' is more usual (I think that 'of' is more usual when what's being changed is an action, a direction, etc., while 'to' is usual when it's something like a document). As the article's text used 'amendment to', even in the first phrase of the summary, I just assumed that the title was slip. As for why it's evolved that way, I'd blame the lawyers; they do write a peculiar form of English, usually defended as making things less ambigious, but often doing no such thing. User:Mel Etitis (Μελ_Ετητης)">User talk:Mel Etitis 10:36, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) People may indeed refer to individual amendments ''of'' the constitution, but generally people speak collectively about amendment''s'' ''to'' the constitution. When one is amending the constitution the amendment is not yet part of the text, so one can talk correctly about an amendment ''of'' the text or ''to'' the text, with either being acceptable. Looking retrospectively one is describing the constitution which includes the amendments, so it is standard to talk about amendments that were added ''to'' the text. ''Of'' is taken as implying a form of separation between the amendments and the constitution, when in fact, that separation ceases when the amendment is added to the text. It is a minor linguistic point, but my vote would incline to use ''to'' rather than ''of'' in the context of this article. It also corresponds with wikipedia policy of 'most common usage'. There are many exceptions where most common form is technically wrong, or where there are linguistic, historical or other reasons for using a different form to what is most widely used (eg, one should refer to the ''Gladstone ministry'' rather than the ''Gladstone government'' because ''ministry'' rather than ''government'' was the contemporary word to use. Similarly one should call the main Irish prison ''Mountjoy Gaol'' rather than ''Mountjoy Jail'' because the former was the contemporary spelling used when it was created, was the predominant usage until recently and is still used by many in preference to the American english "jail".) ''Of'' here rather than ''on'' is not sufficiently used, or has sufficient legal, historical or political justification, to use in preference to the more widely used ''on''. But it is a minor point. Overall it is a very good article indeed. Congratulations to the person who started it and whomever added to it. It is the sort of article that makes wikipedia so useful sometimes. User:Jtdirl 21:44, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Jtdirl/FearÉIREANN just moved this article to Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland, and I've reversed this. The convention on Wikipedia, as we all know, is to achieve a consensus before moving an article. I think I've made clear that I oppose this move so given only two contributors have an opinion there is no consensus. I'm not an administrator so I've been forced to do a cut and paste as an interim measure. Someone else will have to move the article back using the proper method. I'll go into a bit more detail on why I oppose the move on this talkpage when I get a chance. User:Iota 02:37, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC) You should ''never ever ever'' do cut and paste. It is the cardinal rule on wikipedia. You have now created two talk pages with different names to the same article and jammed up links. If you had waited 30 seconds you would have found out that the reason the move was made was because it was the 100% advice of all academics (law lecturers, political scientists and english lecturers) who say that ''of'' can be used to describe singular proposed amendments, because they are literally an amendment of the constitution. But collectively they are never described as ''of'' and always described as ''to'' because you are talking about adding amendments (plural) ''to'' the constitution. You cannot add a series of amendments ''of'' a constitution. It is elementary. I was simply putting the page at the correct legal and grammatical title, given that it is named in the plural, not the singular. [rest of the comment removed by its author]. Fear''ÉIREANN''">User:Jtdirl 02:51, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
: I accept Iota make a mistake. He has apologied for the error. I've erased one of the two talk pages and redirected this one to its space, and rolled back all his changes, so all the archives and talk pages are all connected to each other.''Jeez. I didn't think I was that technically capable! :-) '' So mess untangled, links and hopefully peace restored. Fear''ÉIREANN''">User:Jtdirl 03:34, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Well we can agree now that cut-and-pastes are a bad idea. However I still fundamentally reject the idea that it's permissable for an individual to unilaterally by-pass the normal process of achieving consensus for moving an article, no matter how justified or correct they may feel the move is. Decisions are taken on Wikipedia collectively, not by dictat. At the very least prior consultation is a courtesy to those who have been involved in creating an article. I think you are very wrong if you think this kind of unilateralism is how things are done, but if you disagree then I don't see much point in getting into a protracted debate about it. User:Iota 17:23, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
It is actually standard for grammatical and factual changes to be changed directly by a move. Consensus is central in debating issues like correct name - eg, Bunreacht na hEireann or Constitution of Ireland, Belfast Agreement of Good Friday Agreement? But it is standard for errors in grammar, spelling mistakes, names not following the Manual of Style and Naming Conventions, etc to be changed unilaterally. That happens all over wikipedia all the time. All I did was remove the grammatically inelegant and technically incorrect use of ''of'' when speaking collectively about a series of amendments, and replace it by the grammatically, linguistically and technically correct ''on''. Fear''ÉIREANN''">User:Jtdirl 19:02, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_Ireland:
Amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_Ireland
Amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_Ireland
Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland
An amendment may be made to any part of Constitution of Ireland, the constitution of the Republic of Ireland, but only by referendum. An amendment must first be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally signed into law by the President of Ireland. Aside from constitutional referenda, the constitution also provides, in extraordinary circumstances, for a referendum on a normal bill (proposed law) known as the ordinary referendum, but none has yet occurred. ==Procedure== ===Referendum=== The procedure for amending the constitution is specified in Article 46. A proposed amendment must take the form of a bill to amend the constitution originating in Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament). It must first be ''formally'' approved by both the Dail and the Seanad Éireann in practice the Senate only has the power to delay an amendment adopted by the Dáil. Then it must be endorsed by the electorate in a referendum. A simple majority is sufficient to carry an amendment and there is no minimum turn-out required for a constitutional referendum to be considered valid. The vote occurs by secret ballot. A proposal to amend the constitution put to a referendum must not contain any other proposal. While United Kingdom citizens resident in the state may vote in a general election, only Irish citizens can participate in a referendum. After being approved by referendum an amendment must be signed into law by the President. However, this is merely a formality as, provided the correct procedure has been complied with, the President cannot veto an amendment. The dates given for the amendments listed in this article are (unless otherwise stated) the dates on which each amendment was signed into law. ===Historical methods=== Historically the constitution has also been amended by two other means. The Transitory Provisions that formed a part of the constitution at its adoption in 1937 provided that for an initial four year period (from 1937-1941) the document could be amended by a simple act of the Oireachtas. The First and Second Amendments were adopted in this way. However, as a safeguard to prevent the wholescale change of the document after it has been approved ''en bloc'' by the people, the President of Ireland, was given the right to decline to sign a Bill amending the constitution until the amendment had been voted on by the people, if he believed the amendment materially changed the whole constitution. The President in office, Douglas Hyde, did not however refer any amendment directly to the people, but instead chose to sign all Oireachtas-passed amendments directly into law. The constitution stated that this power, and indeed the Oireachtas's power to amend the constitution without automatic reference to the people, automatically lapsed three years after the entry into office of the first president. Since 1941, on the third anniversary of President Hyde's election when the Transitional Provisions lapsed, every amendment must follow a set process of creation: passage through the Oireachtas, followed by a public referendum. One partial exception to this, however, were the changes made to Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland of the constitution in 1999. The Nineteenth Amendment, adopted by referendum in May, 1998, did not itself amend those articles but rather introduced, on a temporary basis, a special mechanism whereby the Irish Government could order their amendment once it was satisfied that certain commitments made by other parties to the Belfast Agreement had been complied with. ==List of amendments== ===Under Transitory Provisions=== *First Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1939): Extend the definition of "time of war" to include a war in which the state is not a participant. The motive behind this amendment was to allow the Government to exercise emergency powers during the World War II, in which the state was neutral. *Second Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1941): This was an omnibus amendment to a variety of articles aimed at introducing a variety of changes to the document, some significant and others minor, while still possible without the need for a referendum. ===By referendum=== *Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1972): Permitted the state to join the European Communities. *Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (5th January, 1973): Reduced minimum voting age from 21 to 18. *Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (5th Jan, 1973): Removed reference to "special position" of the Catholic Church and to certain other named denominations. *Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1979): Provided that orders made by the Adoption Board could not be declared unconstitutional because they were not made by a court. *Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1979): Allowed the state to determine by law which institutions of higher education would be entitled to elect members of the Seanad Eireann. *Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1983): Introduced the constitutional prohibition of abortion. *Ninth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1984): Extended the right to vote to certain non-nationals. *Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1987): Permitted the state to ratify the Single European Act. *Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (July, 1992): Permitted the state to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. *Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (3rd December, 1992): Specified that the prohibition of abortion would not limit freedom of travel in and out of the state. *Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (23rd December, 1992): Specified that the prohibition of abortion would not limit the right to distribute information about abortion services in foreign countries. *Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (June, 1996): Removed the constitutional prohibition of divorce, but retained certain restrictions on its occurrence. *Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (Dec, 1996): Allowed a court to refuse someone bail if it suspected they would commit a criminal offence while at liberty. *Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1997): Introduced provisions related to the confidentiality of cabinet meetings. This became protected unless, in certain circumstances, the High Court orders otherwise. *Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (3rd June, 1998): Allowed the state to ratify the Amsterdam Treaty. *Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (3rd June, 1998): Provided for the amendment of Articles 2 and 3 as required by the Belfast Agreement. *Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1999): Provided that local government elections must occur every five years. *Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (27th March, 2002): Introduced the constitutional prohibition of the death penalty, and also removed all incidental references to the death penalty from the text. *Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (27th March, 2002): Allowed the state to ratify the Statute of the International Criminal Court. *Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (November, 2002): Allowed the state to ratify the Nice Treaty. *Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (24th June, 2004): restricted the right to Irish citizenship. =='Missing' amendments== It should be noted that there is officially no 12th, 22nd, 24th or 25th Amendment. This has occurred for a number of reasons; one is that the formal title of an amendment cannot be altered once it has been adopted by the houses of the Oireachtas. This means that where a number of amendments are put to the electorate on the same day, and one is rejected, an amendment number may be 'skipped'. In November 1992 three proposed amendments were put to the people: the 12th, 13th and 14th. The proposed 12th Amendment was defeated but the 13th and 14th Amendments, which were approved, could not then be renamed. ==List of failed amendments== *Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1958: This was a proposal to alter the electoral system for elections to Dáil Éireann from proportional representation under the Single Transferable Vote to the British 'First Past the Post' system. It also proposed to establish an independent commission for the drawing of constituency boundaries on a constitutional basis. It was put to a referendum on 17th June, 1959 but defeated. *Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968: This proposed to specify more precisely the system of apportionment in the drawing of constituency boundaries. It would have permitted rural constituencies to elected a disproportionate number of TD (parliament)s (MPs). The proposal was put to a referendum on 16th October, 1968 but rejected. *Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1968 (1968): This was a second attempt to alter the electoral system by abolishing proportional representation in favour of 'First Past the Post'. It was submitted to a referendum on the same day as the Third Amendment Bill and defeated. *Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1986: This proposed to remove the constitutional ban on divorce. It was put to a referendum on 26th June, 1986 but defeated. The ban on divorce was eventually lifted by the Fifteenth Amendment in 1996. *Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill (1992): This proposed to strengthen the constitutional ban on abortion by stating that an abortion could not be procured to protect the health, rather than the life, of the mother, and that risk to the life of the mother from suicide could not be grounds for an abortion. This was put to a referendum on 25th November, 1992 but defeated. *Twenty-second Amendment of the Constiution Bill (2001): This proposed to establish a body for the investigation of judges and to amend the procedure for the removal of judges. It was not passed by the houses of the Oireachtas. *Twenty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill (2001): Would have allowed the state to ratify the Nice Treaty. This was rejected in a referendum on 7th June, 2001. Voters reversed this decision when they adopted the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 2002. *Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution Bill (2002): This was a second attempt to strengthen the constitutional ban on abortion and to prevent risk of suicide being invoked as grounds for an abortion. It was submitted to a referendum on 6th March, 2002 but defeated. ==List of referenda== The following is a list of every referendum in the state since 19371. The Constitution of Ireland was approved by plebiscite in July, 1937 and every subsequent referendum has concerned a constitutional amendment. Dates given are those on which referenda were held.
==Major subjects== ===The European Union=== A number of amendments to the Constitution of Ireland have related to the European Union (and its predecessors). Before the state could join the European Communities the Third Amendment was necessary. Membership granted powers to European institutions which the 1937 constitution had vested in the Oireachtas (parliament) and the Government. It was also possible that many provisions of the constitution might in the future be found to be incompatible with EU law. For these reasons the Third Amendment introduced a provision expressly permitting the state to joing the Communities and stating in broad terms that European law has supremacy over the constitution. A number of subsequent amendments have been made to expressly permit the state to ratify changes to the treaties of the EU. This is because of a 1987 ruling by the Irish Supreme Court, in the case of ''Crotty v. An Taoiseach'', that major changes to the EU treaties require a constitutional amendment. Referenda have therefore been held on the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty, the Amsterdam Treaty and the Treaty of Nice. There has however, been debate among legal scholars as to whether or not each and every one of these treaties has been sufficiently far reaching as to necessitate a constitutional amendment. ===Abortion=== The Eighth Amendment introduced the constitutional prohibition on abortion in 1983. Opponents of abortion sought this amendment partly because of fears that the Irish Supreme Court would in the future infer an implicit right to an abortion in the provisions of the constitution. The court had already ruled, in the 1974 case of ''McGee v. The Attorney General'', that reference in Article 41 to the "imprescriptable rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law" of the family conferred upon spouses a broad right to privacy in marital affairs. It was feared that this right might be extended to include the right to an abortion. There was further concern that the Supreme Court might take its lead from developments in judicial review in other nations, such as the controversial ruling of the United States Supreme Court in the 1973 case of ''Roe v. Wade''. It was observed at the time of the adoption of the constitutional prohibition of abortion that its wording was very vague. Since its adoption a number of attempts have been made to modify the constitution in order to clarify the ban's precise implications. In particular there have been two failed attempts (in 1992 and 2002) to strengthen the ban, but two successful attempts to weaken its implications (both in December 1992). The two failed amendments arose from a ruling of the Supreme Court in March 1992, in the case of the ''Attorney General v. X'' (more commonly known as the "X case"), that a mother is entitled to an abortion where there is a risk to her life from suicide. Opponents of abortion feared that this ruling could only be enforced in a way that would lead to a liberal abortion regime of the kind found in many other countries, such as the United Kingdom, but this has not yet come to pass (although the government has yet to legislate for the implications of the 'X' case). The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments guaranteed that the ban on abortion would not compromise the right to obtain information about, or freedom of travel to avail of, abortion services available abroad. ==Previous constitutions== Prior to the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, the state was governed under two other documents: the Dáil Constitution of the short-lived 1919-1922 Irish Republic and the constitution of the 1922-1937 Irish Free State. Each used different formal procedures for amendment of the text. The Dáil Constitution was enacted by Dáil Éireann (which was at that time a single chamber legislature) as an ordinary act of parliament. As a result it could be amended by simple vote of the legislature. The Constitution of the Irish Free State originally provided for a process of amendment by means of a referendum. However the constitution could initially be amended by the Free State Oireachtas for eight years. The Oireachtas chose to extent that period, meaning that for the duration of its existence, the Free State constitution could be amended at will by parliament. In theory, it was argued that the constitution could not be amended in a way with conflicted with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 ratified by both the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. However the Statute of Westminster 1931 and legal judgments removed that restriction in the 1930s. ==Footnote== # The "total poll" column in the table below gives the total number of votes cast, including spoilt votes. The percentages given in the "for" and "against" columns are derived from the total number of valid, or unspoilt votes. A green coloured row indicates a proposal approved by the electorate; red indicates a rejected measure. All data are taken from the official website of the Referendum Returning Officer [http://www.referendum.ie]. ==Related topics== *Politics of the Republic of Ireland *Abortion in Ireland *Constitutional amendment ==External links== *[http://www.referendum.ie www.Referendum.ie] - official website of the Referendum Returning Officer. Includes an archive of referendum statistics. *[http://www.johnpghall.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ The Unabridged Constitution of Ireland] - this is an unofficial variorum edition with amendments alongside the original text. It is only accurate up until the Twentieth Amendment in 1999. *[http://www.ucc.ie/law/irlii/index.php Irish Legal Information Initiative] *[http://www.irishstatutebook.ie IrishStatuteBook.ie] Irish constitutional lawAmendments of the Constitution of Ireland
Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland
== "Amendments to" Vs. "Amendments of"== Shouldn't the title be 'Amendments ''to'' the constitution of Ireland'? User:Mel Etitis (Μελ_Ετητης)">User talk:Mel Etitis 21:51, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) It should indeed. I'll rename it. (I knew ''something'' about the page didn't look right, but I couldn't recognise what! Of course ''of'' should be ''to''. Well spotted. User:Jtdirl 00:07, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :You're not exactly right about this fellas so please don't move the article. If you look at the titles and provisions of the various constitutional amendment acts they all use "amendments of" rather than "to". So, for example, the act for the most recent Twenty-seventh Amendment provides in section 2 (my italics added): ::(1) The amendment ''of'' the Constitution effected by this Act shall be called the Twenty-seventh Amendment ''of'' the Constitution. ::(2) This Act may be cited as the Twenty-seventh Amendment ''of'' the Constitution Act 2004. :Of course the practice in the United States is "amendments to". I would be interested to know why the custom has evolved this way in Ireland and whether or not any other country has "amendments of" its constitution. :User:Iota 03:53, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) OK — though I wasn't going on U.S. usage, just normal English. It's not that I think 'amendment of' is wrong, it's just that 'amendment to' is more usual (I think that 'of' is more usual when what's being changed is an action, a direction, etc., while 'to' is usual when it's something like a document). As the article's text used 'amendment to', even in the first phrase of the summary, I just assumed that the title was slip. As for why it's evolved that way, I'd blame the lawyers; they do write a peculiar form of English, usually defended as making things less ambigious, but often doing no such thing. User:Mel Etitis (Μελ_Ετητης)">User talk:Mel Etitis 10:36, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) People may indeed refer to individual amendments ''of'' the constitution, but generally people speak collectively about amendment''s'' ''to'' the constitution. When one is amending the constitution the amendment is not yet part of the text, so one can talk correctly about an amendment ''of'' the text or ''to'' the text, with either being acceptable. Looking retrospectively one is describing the constitution which includes the amendments, so it is standard to talk about amendments that were added ''to'' the text. ''Of'' is taken as implying a form of separation between the amendments and the constitution, when in fact, that separation ceases when the amendment is added to the text. It is a minor linguistic point, but my vote would incline to use ''to'' rather than ''of'' in the context of this article. It also corresponds with wikipedia policy of 'most common usage'. There are many exceptions where most common form is technically wrong, or where there are linguistic, historical or other reasons for using a different form to what is most widely used (eg, one should refer to the ''Gladstone ministry'' rather than the ''Gladstone government'' because ''ministry'' rather than ''government'' was the contemporary word to use. Similarly one should call the main Irish prison ''Mountjoy Gaol'' rather than ''Mountjoy Jail'' because the former was the contemporary spelling used when it was created, was the predominant usage until recently and is still used by many in preference to the American english "jail".) ''Of'' here rather than ''on'' is not sufficiently used, or has sufficient legal, historical or political justification, to use in preference to the more widely used ''on''. But it is a minor point. Overall it is a very good article indeed. Congratulations to the person who started it and whomever added to it. It is the sort of article that makes wikipedia so useful sometimes. User:Jtdirl 21:44, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Jtdirl/FearÉIREANN just moved this article to Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland, and I've reversed this. The convention on Wikipedia, as we all know, is to achieve a consensus before moving an article. I think I've made clear that I oppose this move so given only two contributors have an opinion there is no consensus. I'm not an administrator so I've been forced to do a cut and paste as an interim measure. Someone else will have to move the article back using the proper method. I'll go into a bit more detail on why I oppose the move on this talkpage when I get a chance. User:Iota 02:37, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC) You should ''never ever ever'' do cut and paste. It is the cardinal rule on wikipedia. You have now created two talk pages with different names to the same article and jammed up links. If you had waited 30 seconds you would have found out that the reason the move was made was because it was the 100% advice of all academics (law lecturers, political scientists and english lecturers) who say that ''of'' can be used to describe singular proposed amendments, because they are literally an amendment of the constitution. But collectively they are never described as ''of'' and always described as ''to'' because you are talking about adding amendments (plural) ''to'' the constitution. You cannot add a series of amendments ''of'' a constitution. It is elementary. I was simply putting the page at the correct legal and grammatical title, given that it is named in the plural, not the singular. [rest of the comment removed by its author]. Fear
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
A
AB | AC | AD | AE | AF | AG | AH | AI | AJ | AK | AL | AM | AN | AO | AP | AR | AS | AT | AU | AW | AX | AY | AZ |Words begining with Amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_Ireland:
Amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_Ireland
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