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:
“All the powers of imagination combine in hypochondria.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)