Powers
Under the constitution the Oireachtas had exclusive authority to:
- Legislate, including approving the budget.
- Create subordinate legislatures.
- Amend the Constitution.
- Permit the state to participate in a war.
- Raise and control armed forces.
There were however also a number of limitations to the Oireachtas power:
- Laws or constitutional amendments were invalid if they violated the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
- It could not retrospectively criminalise acts that were not illegal at the time they were committed.
- Until the 1931 Statute of Westminster, the British Parliament retained the power, in theory, to legislate for the Irish Free State without its consent.
- The Oireachtas could only legislate for the Irish Free State (defined as the area which had previously been known as Southern Ireland), and not for Northern Ireland.
Read more about this topic: Oireachtas Of The Irish Free State
Famous quotes containing the word powers:
“Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire,
With your harmonious choir
Encircle her I love and sing her into peace,
That my old care may cease....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Magic and all that is ascribed to it is a deep presentiment of the powers of science.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Religion differs from magic in that it is not concerned with control or manipulation of the powers confronted. Rather it means submission to, trust in, and adoration of, what is apprehended as the divine nature of ultimate reality.”
—Joachim Wach (1898–1955)