Presidency

Articles 12 to 14 of Eamon de Valera's constitution of 1937 detail the powers of the office of president and stipulate that the president be directly elected for a seven-year term in a national vote, or, if the political parties so choose, nomination procedures can be used to agree on a candidate and avoid a vote. Although the articles allow for outgoing presidents to nominate themselves for a second term, other potential candidates need to be proposed either by twenty members of the Oireachtas (TDs or senators), or the councils of four counties or county boroughs. Given that these local authorities are composed on party lines, this route was rarely feasible and was not used until 1997.

On five occasions—1938, 1952, 1974, 1976, and 1983—only one candidate was nominated, while there have been six contested elections in 1945, 1959, 1966, 1973, 1990, and 1997. Although the constitution prevents the president from participating in party politics or the day-to-day running of the government, there are six discretionary powers for use in specific circumstances; three give the president an adjudicatory role in disputes between Dáil and Senate (which have never arisen), and a fourth gives the president power to convene a meeting of either or both of the houses of the Oireachtas.

The president can also refer a bill passed by the Oireachtas to the Supreme Court to judge its constitutionality, before which the president must consult but is not bound by the Council of State, an advisory body containing past and present senior politicians and seven people appointed by the president. In 1976 President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh referred the Emergency Powers Bill on this basis and resigned after vicious criticism by the minister for defense.

The sixth power relates to the dissolution of the Dáil, and does not require consultation, although Article 13.2.2 states most ambiguously that the president "may in his absolute discretion refuse to dissolve Dáil Éireann on the advice of a Taoiseach who has ceased to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann." No president has ever exercised this power, though pressure in 1981 was brought to bear on Patrick Hillery to do so.

The office of president has been likened to that of a relatively powerless constitutional monarch and in the earlier years was frequently used as a retirement post for distinguished male senior politicians, most notably de Valera, who was aged 76 when elected president. In 1990 Mary Robinson, aged 46, and a candidate nominated by the Labour Party, shattered this convention following an electrifying campaign, making Ireland only the second country in Europe after Iceland to have a woman as elected head of state. Hoping to expand the role of the office, she certainly gave it an increased profile and championed the plight of minorities and the status of women in Irish society, though ultimately she had to accept the limitations of the office and abstain from interfering in matters that were the prerogative of the government.

Presidency

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