Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 June 2016
68. Deputy Lisa Chambers asked the Taoiseach the number of occasions in each of the years from 2011 to 2016 to date in which the powers vested in him or any other Minister in his Department were exercised, without any express act of delegation, by departmental officials of certain seniority and responsibility, as per the Carltona doctrine. [17477/16]
View answerThe Carltona Doctrine permits a function of a Minister to be carried out by an appropriate official on behalf of a Minister, without any express act of delegation, unless the context makes it clear that this is something that can only be done by the Minister personally.
The legal principle underlying the Carltona doctrine was formally established by the UK Courts in 1943 and was ultimately recognised by the Irish Supreme Court in Tang v. Minister for Justice [1996] and Devanney v. Sheils [1998].
The reasoning set out by the courts was essentially that the functions of Government were so complex that no Minister could personally attend to them and therefore the powers given to Ministers are usually exercised under the authority of the Ministers by responsible officials of their Departments.
By virtue of the nature of the principle involved, there are no records available of the number of occasions in which the powers vested in me or a Minister assigned to my Department were exercised, without any express act of delegation, by Departmental officials of certain seniority and responsibility.
