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Referendum Commission
A Referendum Commission () was an independent statutory body in Ireland which had been set up in advance of referendums in Ireland from 1998 to 2019. The Referendum Act 1998 as amended by the Referendum Act 2001 provided for the establishment of the body. It was superseded in 2023 by the Electoral Commission, established on a permanent basis. Background In ''McKenna v. An Taoiseach (No. 2)'' (1995), the Supreme Court of Ireland upheld a challenge from Patricia McKenna to public expenditure to promote a Yes vote in the constitutional referendum on divorce. The Referendum Act 1998 provided for the establishment of a commission for each referendum to provide information about the contents of amendment. The first Referendum Commission was set up for the Amsterdam Treaty referendum. Composition The 1998 Act, as amended, provided that the Chairperson of the commission should be a former judge of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal or a serving or former judge of the High Court nom ...
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Statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed will of a legislative body, whether that be on the behalf of a country, state or province, county, municipality, or so on. Depending on the legal system, a statute may also be referred to as an "act." Etymology The word appears in use in English as early as the 14th century. "Statute" and earlier English spellings were derived from the Old French words ''statut'', ''estatut'', ''estatu,'' meaning "(royal) promulgation, (legal) statute." These terms were in turn derived from the Late Latin ''statutum,'' meaning "a law, decree." Publication and organization In virtually all countries, newly enacted statutes are published and distributed so that everyone can look up the statutory law. This can be done in the form of a government gazette, whi ...
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Thirty-eighth Amendment Of The Constitution Of Ireland
The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which altered the provisions regulating divorce. It removed the constitutional requirement for a defined period of separation before a Court may grant a dissolution of marriage, and eased restrictions on the recognition of foreign divorces. The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas, the Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Dissolution of Marriage) Act 2019 (introduced as bill no. 57 of 2016). The bill as introduced did not propose the total deletion of a waiting period from the Constitution, merely a reduction in the required term. After amendments by the Oireachtas, the bill was put to a referendum on 24 May 2019, the same date as the local and European elections. The proposal was approved by 82% of voters. The bill was signed into law on 11 June 2019 by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland. Background When the Constitution of Ireland was adopt ...
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Twentieth Amendment Of The Constitution Of Ireland
The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2001 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which provided constitutional recognition of local government and required that local government elections occur at least once in every five years. It was approved by referendum on 11 June 1999 and signed into law on 23 June of the same year. The referendum was held the same day as the local and European Parliament elections. Background The structure of local government in Ireland dates back to the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, subject to amendments since then. There was no reference to local government in the Constitution as adopted in 1937. Local elections were held at irregular intervals: the local elections held previous to the adoption of the Amendment were in 1991, 1985 and 1979. Constitutional recognition of local government was proposed by the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, including a requirement to hold regular election. Changes to the text Insertion of ...
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Local Government In The Republic Of Ireland
The functions of local government in the Republic of Ireland are mostly exercised by thirty-one local authorities, termed County, City, or City and County Councils. The principal decision-making body in each of the thirty-one local authorities is composed of the members of the council, elected by universal franchise in local elections every five years from multi-seat local electoral areas using the single transferable vote. Many of the authorities' statutory functions are, however, the responsibility of ministerially appointed career officials termed chief executive (Irish local government), Chief executives. The competencies of the city and county councils include planning, transport infrastructure, sanitary services, public safety (notably fire services) and the provision of public libraries. Each local authority sends representatives to one of three Regional Assemblies in Ireland, Regional Assemblies. Local government in the state is governed by Local Government Acts 1925 to ...
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Nineteenth Amendment Of The Constitution Of Ireland
The Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution is an Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland, amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to be bound by the British–Irish Agreement (the bilateral portion of the Good Friday Agreement) and enabled the establishment of shared political institutions between Republic of Ireland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. It also provided a mechanism for a further amendment to the Constitution upon a declaration by the government on the implementation of the Agreement, most notably by changing Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland, Articles 2 and 3 from the previous claim over the whole island of Ireland to an aspiration towards creating a united Ireland by peaceful means, "with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island". The amendment was effected by the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1998 (previously bill (law), bill no. 24 of 1998) whic ...
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Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. It was a major development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. It is made up of the Multi-Party Agreement between most of Northern Ireland's political parties, and the BritishIrish Agreement between the British and Irish governments. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on the agreement. Issues relating to sovereignty, governance, discrimination, military and paramilitary groups, justice and policing were central to the agreement. It restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of " power sharing" and it included acceptance of the principle of consent, commitment to civil and political rights, cultural parity of esteem, police reform, paramilitary disarmament and e ...
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Thomas Finlay (judge)
Thomas Aloysius Finlay (17 September 1922 – 3 December 2017) was an Irish judge, politician and barrister who served as Chief Justice of Ireland and a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1985 to 1994, President of the High Court from 1974 to 1985 and a Judge of the High Court from 1971 to 1985. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-Central constituency from 1954 to 1957. Early life and career He was the second son of Thomas Finlay, a politician and senior counsel whose career was cut short by his early death in 1932. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, University College Dublin (UCD) and King's Inns. While attending UCD, he was elected Auditor of the University College Dublin Law Society. His older brother, William Finlay (1921–2010), was a governor of the Bank of Ireland. He was called to the Bar in 1944, practising on the Midlands circuit and became a senior counsel in 1961. Political career He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael T ...
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Treaty Of Amsterdam
The Treaty of Amsterdam, officially the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts, was signed on 2 October 1997, and entered into force on 1 May 1999; it made substantial changes to the Maastricht Treaty, which had been signed in 1992. Under the Treaty of Amsterdam, member states agreed to transfer certain powers from national governments to the European Parliament across diverse areas, including legislating on immigration, adopting civil and criminal laws, and enacting common foreign and security policy (CFSP), as well as implementing institutional changes for expansion as new member nations join the EU. Background The treaty was the result of long negotiations which began in Messina, Italy, on 2 June 1995, nearly forty years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, and reached completion in Amsterdam on 18 June 1997. Following the formal signing of the Treaty on 2 October 1997, the ...
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Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language (ISL, ) is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. It is also used in Northern Ireland, alongside British Sign Language (BSL). Irish Sign Language is more closely related to French Sign Language (LSF) than to BSL, though it has influence from both languages. It has influenced sign languages in Australia and South Africa, and has little relation to either spoken Irish or English. ISL is unique among sign languages for having different gendered versions due to men and women being taught it at different schools all over Ireland. Development The earliest known references to signing in Ireland come from the 18th century. According to Ethnologue, the language has influence from both French Sign Language (LSF) and British Sign Language (BSL), as well as from signed French and signed English, BSL having been introduced in Dublin in 1816. The first school for deaf children in Ireland, the Claremont Institution, was established in ...
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Braille
Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone devices. Braille can be written using a slate and stylus, a braille writer, an electronic braille notetaker or with the use of a computer connected to a braille embosser. For blind readers, braille is an independent writing system, rather than a code of printed orthography. Braille is named after its creator, Louis Braille, a Frenchman who lost his sight as a result of a childhood accident. In 1824, at the age of fifteen, he developed the braille code based on the French alphabet as an improvement on night writing. He published his system, which subsequently included musical notation, in 1829. The second revision, published in 1837, was the first Binary numeral system, binary form of writing developed in the modern era. Braille characters are f ...
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Minister For Housing, Planning And Local Government
Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government with the rank of a normal minister but who doesn't head a ministry ** Shadow minister, a member of a Shadow Cabinet of the opposition ** Minister (Austria) * Minister (diplomacy) Diplomatic rank is a system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations. A diplomat's rank determines many ceremonial details, such as the order of precedence at official processions, table seat ..., the rank of diplomat directly below ambassador * Ministerialis, a member of a noble class in the Holy Roman Empire * '' The Minister'', a 2011 French-Belgian film directed by Pierre Schöller See also * Ministry (other) * Minster (other) *'' Yes Minister'' {{disambiguation ...
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Department Of Housing, Planning And Local Government
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage () is a Department of State (Ireland), department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Departmental team The official headquarters and ministerial offices of the department are in The Custom House, Dublin. The departmental team consists of the following: *Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage: James Browne (Fianna Fáil politician), James Browne, Teachta Dála, TD **Minister of State for local government and planning: John Cummins (Irish politician), John Cummins, TD **Minister of State for nature, heritage and biodiversity: Christopher O'Sullivan, TD **Minister of State for housing: Kieran O'Donnell, TD *Secretary General of the Department: Graham Doyle Overview The official headquarters and ministerial offices of the department are in The Custom House, Dublin 1. The department is responsible for, among other matters: *housing *the Radiological ...
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