How much power does the Government hold over the President?

MUCH of the public debate in this presidential campaign has focused on the limitations of the office and to how the President is, for all intents and purposes, a political slave of the Government.

This has led to a rather stultifying political situation where the candidates, desperate to distinguish themselves from each other, search for any slight edge to gain public approval. While the president might be mainly a symbolic figure — the personification of the state — they nevertheless fulfil a political role.

When President McAleese commented on the Nice Treaty referendum during a state visit to Greece in July 2002, a number of politicians expressed the view that her intervention went beyond that allowed by her role with John Gormley of the Greens advising her to “butt out” of the political debate.

But what exactly is the President’s relationship to the Government charged with implementing public policy? Presidents have few constitutional powers of which to avail and so limited are these powers that a President has essentially no room for independent action. In that context, a would-be reformist President would soon come up against the constraints of the office.

At the centre of the relationship between the President and the Government is the fact that the Taoiseach must keep the President informed on matters of domestic and international policy (article 28.5.2), but there is no indication of how often the two must meet or how detailed the information must be. Indeed, Liam Cosgrave is reported to have seen Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh only four times in two years between 1974 and ‘76.

Governments have also advised Presidents to refrain from certain activities.

Mary Robinson was famously asked by the Fianna Fáil-Labour, government in 1993 to decline an invitation to chair a Ford Foundation committee on the United Nation’s future. Robinson, according to Fergus Finlay’s memoirs, implied, in correspondence with Albert Reynolds, that she believed Dick Spring had leaked some of the details of what was clearly a row about this invitation. Spring had been furious at this innuendo, and had written a sharp letter to the President.

In any event the President accepted this advice without forcing a confrontation, as she would clearly have been acting unconstitutionally if she had insisted on accepting the invitation. Robinson did go ahead to meet with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and shake his hand on an official trip to Belfast in 1994 despite unease in Government circles. The fact that she was not explicitly advised against meeting Adams was the key point for Robinson.

The President has a somewhat greater degree of freedom in relation to a small number of discretionary powers. There are six such powers, but only one has been invoked with any degree of significance (article 26.1.1) and only one other remains potentially important (article 13.2.2).

Article 26.1.1 allows the President to submit a bill to the Supreme Court to test its constitutional validity. The greatest cause célèbre surrounding this occurred in September 1976 when Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh referred the Emergency Powers Bill to the Supreme Court. On its referral, the bill was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court, and the Minister for Defence, Patrick Donegan, described President Ó Dálaigh as “a thundering disgrace” for having referred the bill at all.

The Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, refused to sack his minister and a Dáil motion of no confidence in Donegan was narrowly defeated. Following the vote, President Ó Dálaigh tendered his resignation as he considered his Presidency untenable due to this criticism from the Government. This incident highlights the tension possible between the President and the Government within the constitutional constraints of the office of President.

Article 13.2.2 states 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.

This power, while it has never been exercised, is controversial because at times of political tension it draws the President into the party process whether or not the article is actually invoked.

While Mary Davis said on Wednesday’s RTÉ debate that the office of President was non-political, there can be little doubt that article 13.2.2 dispels that view as it politicises the presidency in circumstances which are not spelt out in the constitution. Granting or refusing a dissolution might lay the President open to charges of favouring one political party over another.

Douglas Hyde in 1944 and Patrick Hillery in 1982 agreed to dissolve the Dáil when this question arose during their presidencies with Hillery coming under pressure as Charles Haughey, the leader of the opposition, was willing to try to form a government without recourse to an election and by proxy made this view known to Hillery.

Mary Robinson, however, made it known that she would have refused a dissolution had Albert Reynolds requested one following the fall of the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition in 1994 as there was clearly another government in waiting.

Ireland’s ninth President will no doubt come to the office brimful of ideas but given the office’s constraining role they are unlikely to chart new water in the relationship between the presidency and the Government.

* Gary Murphy is associate professor of politics at Dublin City University. He is visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for 2011-2012.