ABSTRACT
On independence Ireland became a parliamentary democracy, inheriting from Britain a system of government that had operated there in the same basic form for about two centuries. In this system the cabinet or government is ‘a committee of the legislative body selected to be the executive body’ (Bagehot 1963 [1867]: 66). Legal theory would suggest the parliament was charged with making law and the government would oversee its implementation. This is not how it operates in Ireland or in any other parliamentary democracy. Unlike in presidential systems there is no separation of powers; parliament and the government are fused and will tend to stand and fall together. The government is selected by a Taoiseach who is chosen by the Dáil, and his selection is then approved by the Dáil. The government then depends on the confidence of the Dáil. Though cabinet is a committee of Dáil Éireann, for a variety of reasons, many of which are dealt with in Chapter 7, the relationship between the government and the Dáil is one in which the cabinet dominates the Dáil. Laws do not originate nor are they shaped in the Dáil. Rather they are usually brought to the Dáil as bills by government.
