Official 1999 Literal English translation

Article 25

25.1 Signing and Promulgating Laws
As soon as a Bill is passed, other than a Bill which is mentioned/stated to be a Bill in which there is a proposal to amend this Constitution, or is deemed to have been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas, the Taoiseach must offer that Bill to the President to put his hand to it and to promulgate it as a law in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

25.2.1 Apart from a case for which the contrary is provided by this Constitution, each Bill which is offered to the President in that way to put his hand to it and to promulgate it (as) law, he must put his hand to it on a day not earlier than the fifth day and not later than the seventh day after the day the Bill is offered to him.

25.2.2 On the petition/request of the Government, with the joint consent of Seanad Éireann beforehand, the President may put his hand to any Bill which gives rise to that petition/request earlier than the fifth day after the aforesaid date.

25.3 Every Bill the period for the consideration of which by Seanad Éireann was shortened under Article 24 of this Constitution, the President must put his hand to it (on) the day that that Bill is offered to him to sign it and to promulgate it as law.

25.4.1 Every Bill becomes law the day the President puts his hand to it under this Constitution and it is a law (on) that day and from that day on and, unless it is clear that there is a contrary intention in regard to it, that is the day it comes into operation.

25.4.2 Every Bill to which the President puts his hand under this Constitution he must promulgate it as law by a notice in the Official Journal, under an order from him, saying that the Bill is law.

25.4.3 The text of a Bill to which the President will put his hand is the text which was passed or is deemed to have been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas and, if a Bill is passed or if it is deemed to have been so passed in the two official languages, the President will put his hand to the Irish text and to the English text of the Bill.

Points to Consider:

Article 25 refers to signing and declaring/proclaiming laws into being.

This should be read together with Article 8, Article 28 and Article 63.

If we are simply to count the quantity of text and sections, this Article has been the most significantly amended since 1937; two sections (ten subsections) plus six words.

Article 25.5 clearly states that Amendments need to be enrolled in the offices of The Registrar of the Supreme Court if they are to become law. The 1st Amendment was registered in English only which means it it is not a valid law due to this inconsistency with the Irish Constitution, An Bunreacht Na hÉireann 1937 which is the full canopy of law from which justice should be administered.

Official Literal English translation

Article 25 contd.

25.4.4 In the event of the President’s putting his hand to the text of a Bill in one of the official languages and in that language only, an official translation must be brought out in the other official language.

25.4.5 As soon as is possible after signing a Bill and promulgating it as law, the text of that law on which will be the President’s hand/signature or, in the case of the President’s hand/signature being on the Irish text and on the English text of that law, those two signed texts must be put into its journal or into their journal in the office of the Recorder of the Supreme Court, and the text that will be so put into its journal, or the two texts that will be so put into their journal, is/are irrefutable evidence of the provisions of that law.

25.4.6 In the event that the Irish text and the English text of a law are put into their journal under this section and those two texts are not in accord with one another, (it is) the Irish text which will have supremacy/dominance.

25.5 It is lawful for the Taoiseach to bring about, from time to time according as he sees that there is a need for it, that a text (in Irish and in English) of this Constitution, as it will be in force at that time and in which will be all the amendments which will have been made to it up to then, be prepared under his guidance.

Points to Consider:

Article 25 , as pursuant to Articles, 1, 8.1, 52, 63

JM Kelly The Irish Constitution article 25.4.4 points out that very few laws have been translated into Irish, our first national principal official text. Therefore these new bills and acts and legislation are unlawful as they are not consistent with An Bunreacht 1937, The Constitution of Éire.

Gates of the Irish College in Dublin