I move: That Section 1 stand part of the Bill. As Deputies will see, the effect of this section is to delete certain phrases from the Constitution and insert others. Looking over the Schedule we have, first of all, in Article 2A, the deletion in sub-section (2) of Section 4 of the words, "Governor-General acting on the advice of the." With this deletion it will mean by the Executive Council. In Article 12 we have the deletion of the words, "The King and." The Oireachtas will then consist of Dáil Eireann. In Article 24 there is the deletion of the words, "Representative of the Crown in the name of the King" and the substitution therefor of the words "Chairman of Dáil Eireann on the direction in writing of the Executive Council signed by the President of the Executive Council." That is the Article dealing with the summoning and dissolving of Parliament. In other words, Parliament in future will be summoned and dissolved by the Chairman of Dáil Eireann acting on the advice and under the direction of the Executive Council signed by the President of the Executive Council. The amendment in Article 41 means that Bills, instead of being signed as formerly by the representative of the Crown on the advice of the Executive Council, will in future be signed by the Chairman of Dáil Eireann and shall become law as from the date of that signature. In Article 42 there is the deletion of the words, "received the King's assent" and the substitution therefor of the words, "been signed by the Chairman of Dáil Eireann." That is consequential on the previous changes. There is also the deletion of the words, "Representative of the Crown" wherever those words occur and the substitution in every case of the words "Chairman of Dáil Eireann." That is with regard to the copies of Bills which will be authoritative copies.
In Article 51 you have the deletion of the sentence beginning with the words, "The Executive Authority" and ending with the words, "Representative of the Crown," and the deletion of the words "aid and advise in the Government," etc., as indicated on the Paper. The effect of that is to leave the executive authority to be exercised by the Executive Council direct. Similarly, you have the appointment of Ministers. Ministers were formerly supposed to be appointed by the representative of the Crown. In a certain way the President was nominated by Dáil Eireann, but in fact and in truth he was elected, so that in fact and in truth there is no difference. I never got, and I do not think my predecessors ever got, anything in the nature of a formal appointment or anything of that sort. It was purely a question of election so far as I have been able to find out. I do not know what happened exactly in the case of my predecessors, but the fact was that the person elected here was accepted at once without question as the President of the Executive Council. He selected the persons he proposed to submit to Dáil Eireann to be members of the Executive Council; Dáil Eireann considered whether they would approve of that Executive Council and, when they were approved, they were supposed to be appointed. I know of no formal act of any kind to say that such and such were appointed. There was nothing to be said for or against it. In fact, it could not be otherwise.