asked the Taoiseach how the agreement in relation to the settlement of the boundary between the Twenty-Six and the Six Counties was ratified by this State; whether the Government has taken or proposes to take steps to repudiate such agreement; and whether he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Boundary Agreement.
I assume that the agreement referred to in the Deputy's question is that included in an instrument described as an "Agreement amending and supplementing the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland", 1925. The Treaty (Confirmation of Amending Agreement) Act, 1925, purported to confirm this instrument.
In so far as the instrument purported to determine a boundary between two parts of Ireland, it has long since been repudiated by the declaration, in Article 2 of the Constitution, that "The National territory consists of the whole island of Ireland, its islands and the territorial seas". Any formal action specifically repudiating the articles of the instrument which concern Partition is unnecessary and would seem to give to those articles a significance which they do not, in fact, possess.