Dáil Éireann (Free State)
From 1922 bis 1937 was Dáil Éireann the directly elected lower house of parliament ( Oireachtas ) of the Irish Free State . The Constitution of the Free State describes the role of the Lower House as the "Chamber of Representatives". Until 1936 , the Oireachtas still had an upper house, the Seanad Éireann (Senate). Like the current Irish House of Commons, the Dáil was the dominant power of the legislature at the time; it had the opportunity to pass almost every law. Furthermore, the Dáil could appoint and dismiss the President of the Executive Council of the Free State. The Free State House of Commons was dissolved with the creation of the "modern" Dáil Éireann under the Constitution of the Irish Republic in 1937. Both the Dáil and the Senate met at Leinster House in Dublin .
composition
According to the constitution of the Free State, every citizen who was at least 21 years old, had no criminal record or was a member of the Senate, could become a member of the lower house. For a large part of the time of the Irish Free State there was also a (controversial) passage in the constitution, which contained an oath of allegiance of all members of the Oireachtas to the Free State constitution as well as the king. It was not until 1936 that this obligation was removed from the constitution.
The lower house at that time, as it still is today, could be voted by any resident who was at least 21 years old. The constitution stipulated a maximum legislative period of 4 years, unless a shorter maximum length was specified by law. But already in 1927 the 4 years were increased to a maximum constitutional term of 6 years and limited by law to 5 years. The Dáil itself could theoretically have been dissolved at any time by the British King on the advice of the Executive Council.
The Free State Constitution provided for majority voting for elections to the Dáil , so the single transferable vote system was used. While from 1937 each electoral district could occupy a maximum of 5 seats in the lower house, there were electoral districts with 6, 7 or 8 seats during the Free State. The city of Galway even awarded 9 seats. In addition to the geographically defined electoral districts, there were also 2 university electoral districts, each of which sent 3 parliamentarians. Anyone who had graduated from the respective university could vote within these electoral districts - however, these persons were then excluded from voting in their actually responsible constituency. In 1936, the university electoral districts were abolished by constitutional and legal amendments.
Powers
The Free State Constitution stipulated that the President of the Executive Council be appointed by the King at the establishment of the Dáil and that the Executive Council as a whole must resign if it loses the support of the House of Commons. In practice, this meant that the president was elected by the daíl and that the daíl could dissolve the cabinet by a successful motion of no confidence or an unsuccessful vote of confidence . A constitutional amendment in 1936 removed the role of the king from this system, thus ensuring that in the final months of the Free State the president was elected directly by the House of Commons, rather than just proposed by him.
In theory, legislative proposals had to be approved by both the lower and upper houses of the Oireachtas in order to receive the king's signature and thus become law. In reality, the House of Commons decided which proposals would become law, since the House of Lords only had the power to delay a law.
During the first years of the Free State there was still the theoretical possibility that the King, or the Governor General in the name of the King, vetoed decisions of the Oireachtas or that the Executive Council was completely dissolved against the will of the House of Commons. However, through a law in 1927, the British government lost its right to have a say in the Irish Free State and the possibility of the Governor General acting without the consent of the British government institutions became very slim.
In contrast to the lower houses of today, the Dáil did not have the constitutional power to declare war - only the Oireachtas as a whole were allowed to do so. But this restriction was actually not important, as the lower house became more and more the dominant power of parliament in the course of the Free State and could thus change the constitution at any time.
history
From 1919 to 1922 , the Dáil only had the title of a revolutionary, unilaterally proclaimed parliament, established by Irish nationalists.
- Main article: see Dáil Éireann (House of Assembly) .
The first and second dail existed outside of British law and were never recognized. Only the Third Dáil was elected as a constitutional assembly under the Anglo-Irish Treaty and, in addition to approving the treaty, was supposed to pave the way for the Free State. Since no lower house had been elected when the constitution of the Irish Free State came into force , the Dáil temporarily took over this task. The first Dáil of the Irish Free State was elected on August 27, 1923 and is - according to Irish political history - the 4th (Fourth) Dáil.
resolution
On December 29, 1937 , the Irish Constitution came into force, establishing what is now known as the Irish Republic . The new constitution was adopted by referendum on July 1st of the same year. On the same day the (9th) Dáil was elected. This was the lower house of the Irish Free State from July to December and then became the lower house of the new legislature within the Irish Republic.
See also
swell
This text is based on a translation of the article w: en: Dáil Éireann (Irish Free State) from the English Wikipedia, version of July 25, 2005.