SI amending Act

Victor

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/si/0626.html

2. Section 1 of the Principal Act is amended—

...

Surely this is a bit unusual - a minister amending something that the Oireachtas has decided upon. On what basis can a minister do this? Is it that it stems from an EU directive?

Note 2A was inserted by both this SI and the 2003 act - I'm not sure if the two versions of 2A are different.

Re-stated act. http://www.lawreform.ie/_fileupload/Restatement/First%20Programme%20of%20Restatement/EN_ACT_1988_0025.PDF

Peregrinus

The Minister can only do this if the Oireachtas has delegated to him the power to do it.

And it has. Section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 allows a Minister to make regulations to bring EU legislation into effect in domestic Irish law. And s. 3(2) says that regulations made for this purpose can repeal, amend or modify any Irish law (other than the European Communities Act itself).

So, if EU law requires Ireland, as a member state, to include certain provisions or measures in its domestic law, then a Minister can do this by making regulations, even if this involves amending, repealing, etc an Act of the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas has given him the power to do so in s. 3(2).

usernamegoes

Peregrinus wrote: »

The Minister can only do this if the Oireachtas has delegated to him the power to do it.

And it has. Section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 allows a Minister to make regulations to bring EU legislation into effect in domestic Irish law. And s. 3(2) says that regulations made for this purpose can repeal, amend or modify any Irish law (other than the European Communities Act itself).

So, if EU law requires Ireland, as a member state, to include certain provisions or measures in its domestic law, then a Minister can do this by making regulations, even if this involves amending, repealing, etc an Act of the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas has given him the power to do so in s. 3(2).

Can the Parliament delegate this power in circumstances other than the EU where there is Constitutional permission? I would imagine that this is peculiar to enacting EU directives.

Peregrinus

usernamegoes wrote: »

Can the Parliament delegate this power in circumstances other than the EU where there is Constitutional permission? I would imagine that this is peculiar to enacting EU directives.

The Oireachtas can delegate this power whenever it likes but, for constitutional reasons, it needs to do so very explicitly - the default presumption is that legislative power remains with the Oireachtas, because of the Constitutional separation of powers - and, in practice, it does so very sparingly.

dermot_sheehan

Parliament can only delegate it's legislative powers provided it has setout clear principles and policies in primary legislation. Permitting a minister to by regulation amend primary legislation (i.e. acts of the oireachtas) by statutory instrument would normally fall foul of this (Cityview Press v. Anco).

Article 29.4 of the Constitution however permits an exception for Statutory Instruments necessitated by our membership of the European Union since it provides that nothing in the constitution shall invalidate acts required by our membership of the european union. The provision of the European Communities Act allowing primary legislation to be amended by Statutory Instrument is therefore constitutional provided the relevant statutory instrument and amendment was necessitated by our european union obligations (Maher v. Minister for Agriculture)