Ordinary referendum

An ordinary referendum in Ireland is a referendum on a bill other than a bill to amend the Constitution. The Constitution prescribes the process in Articles 27 ("Reference of Bills to the People") and 47 ("The Referendum"). Whereas a ''constitutional referendum'' is mandatory for a constitutional amendment bill, an ordinary referendum occurs only if the bill "contains a proposal of such national importance that the will of the people thereon ought to be ascertained". This is decided at the discretion of the President, after a petition by Oireachtas members including a majority of Senators. No such petition has ever been presented, and thus no ordinary referendum has ever been held.

Overview

The Oireachtas is a bicameral legislature in which Dáil Éireann, the lower house, is much more powerful than Seanad Éireann, the upper house. The Seanad cannot veto bills passed by the Dáil; it can at most delay them for 90 days before they are deemed to have been passed. The ordinary referendum in theory allows the Seanad to exercise a check on the Dáil by providing a mechanism for it to prevent the passing of a bill with which it disagrees. However, the composition of the Seanad, especially the fact that 11 of the 60 Senators are nominated by the Taoiseach, means that it usually has a pro-government majority and will not oppose a government bill.

The process leading to an ordinary referendum is in several stages:
* the Dáil passes a bill and sends it to the Seanad
* ''either''
** the Seanad rejects or amends the bill; ''or''
** 90 days elapse without the Seanad passing or rejecting the bill
* the Dáil passes a resolution deeming the bill to have been passed unamended by the Seanad
* Oireachtas members petition the President to refer the bill to the people
* the President
** confers with the Council of State; ''and''
** decides to refer the bill to the people
* the Government decides to hold a referendum
* the referendum is held

The petition process is outlined in Article 27 of the Constitution and detailed in the Constitution (Verification of Petition) Act, 1944.

The referendum process is broadly similar to that for a constitutional referendum; both are outlined in Article 47 of the Constitution and detailed in the Referendum Act, 1994. The electorate, as for constitutional referendums and Presidential elections, consists of all Irish citizens who are either resident in the state or abroad on diplomatic or Defence Forces assignments. Both ordinary and constitutional referendums will approve a bill if a majority of votes are cast in favour of it. However, an ordinary referendum will not reject a bill unless at least one-third of voters on the electoral register vote against it. The bill will still become law even if a majority of those who vote reject it, provided the overall turnout is low. Hogan ''et al.'' call this restriction "altogether unsatisfactory", and consider it another reason why no such referendum has been held.Hogan ''et al.'' 2003, p.419, §4.5.113

Process

Once a bill is passed by both houses of the Oireachtas, or passed by the Dáil and deemed to have been passed by the Seanad, it is sent to the President to be signed into law. The President must wait five days before signing, unless the Seanad agrees to an expedited signature. This gives five days for the presentation of a petition under Article 27, to "request the President to decline to sign and promulgate as a law he Bill,on the ground that the Bill contains a proposal of such national importance that the will of the people thereon ought to be ascertained". Such a petition must be signed by a majority of the Seanad (i.e. at least 31 Senators) and at least one-third of the Dáil (currently 53 of 158 TDs). Signatures are validated by the chief or assistant clerk of the relevant house, or by a Justice of the District Court, a Commissioner for Oaths, or an officer of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of Superintendent. Forging a signature is punishable as electoral fraud.

In considering the petition, the President must convene a meeting of the Council of State, which gives non-binding advice in the exercise of most of his discretionary powers. He may separately decide to refer the bill to the Supreme Court under Article 26 of the Constitution; in which case, he will not consider the Article 27 petition until after the Court has stated that the bill is not repugnant to the Constitution.

The President has 10 days to decide on the petition, or 6 days if there was an Article 26 decision beforehand. If he rejects the petition, he simply signs the bill as normal; if he accepts it, he informs the Taoiseach, Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, and Cathaoirleach of the Seanad in writing. The Constitution specifies that one of two things may happen within 18 months of the decision to refer the bill to the people:
* an ordinary referendum approves the bill; or
* a general election is held, followed by a resolution of the Dáil approving the bill. The intervening general election is presumed to have given the same mandate for the bill that an ordinary referendum would have given.

If either happens, the President must then sign the bill. If neither happens, the bill lapses by default. The authority to decide whether to hold a referendum is vested in the Government by the Referendum Act 1994.

History

The 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases