President of Ireland
head of state of the Republic of Ireland From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The President of Ireland (Irish: Uachtarán na hÉireann OOk-te-rawn na HAir-un ) is the head of state of Ireland. It is mostly ceremonial and elections are held every seven years, a person can be elected for up to two terms. The current President of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins.
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Duties
- Appoints the government: The President formally appoints the Taoiseach (head of government) and other ministers, and accepts their resignations.
- Signs bills into law: The President cannot veto a bill that the Dáil and the Seanad have adopted.
- Power of pardon: The President, on the advice of the Government, has "the right of pardon and the power to commute or remit punishment".[2]
- The President is ex officio President of the Irish Red Cross Society.[3]
- The President appoints, on the advice of the Government, the Senior Professors and chairman of the council of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies;[4]
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List of presidents of Ireland
The functions of the President were exercised by the Presidential Commission from the coming into force of the Constitution on 29 December 1937 until the election of Douglas Hyde in 1938, and during the vacancies of 1974, 1976, and 1997.
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Notes
- In 1952 Seán T. O'Kelly re-nominated himself, as was his right under the Constitution. This allowed him a free run, as he was not the nominee of a specific party, and the other parties could let him be re-elected unopposed without loss of face.
- Unlike Seán T. O'Kelly in 1952, De Valera was renominated in 1966 by Fianna Fáil. As a result, Fine Gael felt honour bound to nominate a candidate, albeit low key. In the event their candidate, Tom O'Higgins, came within 1% (or 10,000 votes) of winning.
References
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