(thing) by ryano Thu Feb 22 2001 at 18:28:31

<< Article 14 | Constitution of Ireland | Article 16 >>

    1. The National Parliament shall be called and known, and is in this Constitution generally referred to, as the Oireachtas.
    2. The Oireachtas shall consist of the President and two Houses, viz.: a House of Representatives to be called Dáil Éireann and a Senate to be called Seanad Éireann.
    3. The Houses of the Oireachtas shall sit in or near the City of Dublin or in such other place as they may from time to time determine.
    1. The sole and exclusive power of making laws for the State is hereby vested in the Oireachtas: no other legislative authority has power to make laws for the State.
    2. Provision may however be made by law for the creation or recognition of subordinate legislatures and for the powers and functions of these legislatures.
    1. The Oireachtas may provide for the establishment or recognition of functional or vocational councils representing branches of the social and economic life of the people.
    2. A law establishing or recognising any such council shall determine its rights, powers and duties, and its relation to the Oireachtas and to the Government.
    1. The Oireachtas shall not enact any law which is in any respect repugnant to this Constitution or any provision thereof.
    2. Every law enacted by the Oireachtas which is in any respect repugnant to this Constitution or to any provision thereof, shall, but to the extent only of such repugnancy, be invalid.
  5. The Oireachtas shall not declare acts to be infringements of the law which were not so at the date of their commission.
    1. The right to raise and maintain military or armed forces is vested exclusively in the Oireachtas.
    2. No military or armed force, other than a military or armed force raised and maintained by the Oireachtas, shall be raised or maintained for any purpose whatsoever.
  7. The Oireachtas shall hold at least one session every year.
    1. Sittings of each House of the Oireachtas shall be public.
    2. In cases of special emergency, however, either House may hold a private sitting with the assent of two-thirds of the members present.
    1. Each House of the Oireachtas shall elect from its members its own Chairman and Deputy Chairman, and shall prescribe their powers and duties.
    2. The remuneration of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of each House shall be determined by law.
  10. Each House shall make its own rules and standing orders, with power to attach penalties for their infringement, and shall have power to ensure freedom of debate, to protect its official documents and the private papers of its members, and to protect itself and its members against any person or persons interfering with, molesting or attempting to corrupt its members in the exercise of their duties.
    1. All questions in each House shall, save as otherwise provided by this Constitution, be determined by a majority of the votes of the members present and voting other than the Chairman or presiding member.
    2. The Chairman or presiding member shall have and exercise a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes.
    3. The number of members necessary to constitute a meeting of either House for the exercise of its powers shall be determined by its standing orders.
  12. All official reports and publications of the Oireachtas or of either House thereof and utterances made in either House wherever published shall be privileged.
  13. The members of each House of the Oireachtas shall, except in case of treason as defined in this Constitution, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest in going to and returning from, and while within the precincts of, either House, and shall not, in respect of any utterance in either House, be amenable to any court or any authority other than the House itself.
  14. No person may be at the same time a member of both Houses of the Oireachtas, and, if any person who is already a member of either House becomes a member of the other House, he shall forthwith be deemed to have vacated his first seat.
  15. The Oireachtas may make provision by law for the payment of allowances to the members of each House thereof in respect of their duties as public representatives and for the grant to them of free travelling and such other facilities (if any) in connection with those duties as the Oireachtas may determine.

<< Article 14 | Constitution of Ireland | Article 16 >>

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