This amendment 13 proposes to add at the end of Article 51 the words "on the nomination of the President of the Executive Council." That is simply to make it clear that in reality the President selects and appoints the Ministers, though nominally the Representative of the Crown has the appointment. We add this at the end of Article 51 "The Executive shall be responsible to the Dáil and shall consist of not more than"— now it would be seven Ministers—"appointed by the Representative of the Crown on the nomination of the President of the Executive Council." It has been pointed out to me that in line 30 that is made clear. "The other Ministers who are to hold office as members of the Executive Council shall be appointed on the nomination of the President." Well, it is just as well to have it in Article 51, because where it occurs in Article 53 there is the additional statement "They shall be appointed on the nomination of the President with the assent of the Dáil," so that it would not be too obviously a redundancy because of that addition.
The amendment was agreed to.