Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
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The Eighteenth Amendment of Bunreacht na hÉireann, the constitution of the Republic of Ireland, permitted the state to ratify the Amsterdam Treaty. It was effected by the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1998, which was approved by referendum on 22nd May 1998 and signed into law on the 3rd June of the same year.
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Changes to the text
- Insertion of new Article 29.4.5:
- The State may ratify the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related Acts signed at Amsterdam on the 2nd day of October, 1997.
- Insertion of new Article 29.4.6:
- The State may exercise the options or discretions provided by or under Articles 1.11, 2.5 and 2.15 of the Treaty referred to in subsection 5° of this section and the second and fourth Protocols set out in the said Treaty but any such exercise shall be subject to the prior approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas.
- (Existing subsections 5 and 6 of Article 29.4 are retained but renumbered as subsections 7 and 8 respectively)
Overview
The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution was one of a number of amendments that have been made to expressly permit the state to ratify changes to the founding treaties of the European Union (others have been the Tenth, Eleventh and Twenty-sixth Amendments). These amendments have all been adopted in response to the 1987 ruling of the Supreme Court, in the case of Crotty v. An Taoiseach, that major changes to the treaties are unconstitutional unless accompanied by an amendment. However it has been a matter of scholarly dispute as to whether or not each and every one of these treaties has been sufficiently far-reaching as to actually necessitate a constitutional amendment. The Treaty of Amsterdam contained a number of optional protocals that member-states could activate at a later time after its adoption. The Eighteenth Amendment permitted the Republic to choose to exercise these options, provided it had the support of the Oireachtas (parliament). It should be noted that, while the changes shown above are those made to the English language version of the constitution, constitutionally it is the Irish text that takes precedence.
The Eighteenth Amendment was introduced by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition government of Bertie Ahern and was also supported by Fine Gael and Labour (the two major opposition parties). The referendum on the amendment occurred on the same day as the referendum on the Nineteenth Amendment, which related to the Good Friday Agreement. The Eighteenth Amendment was approved by 932,632 (61.7%) votes in favour to 578,070 (38.3%) against, a narrower margin than in previous referenda on the European Union.
See also
- Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (membership of the European Communities)
- Politics of the Republic of Ireland
- History of the Republic of Ireland
- Constitutional amendment
External links
- Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1998 (http://www.irlgov.ie/bills28/acts/1998/a98-18am.pdf) (full text at Government of Ireland website (http://www.gov.ie))
- The Unabridged Constitution of Ireland (http://www.johnpghall.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/) (unofficial variorum edition)