Secondary Legislation
Notwithstanding the declaration in the 1937 constitution that the Oireachtas is to be "the sole and exclusive" legislature, it has long been held that it is permissible for the Oireachtas to delegate it law-making power to other bodies as long as such delegated legislation does not exceed the "principles and policies" set out in the relevant authorising statute.
All instances of delegated legislation in the Republic are known as statutory instruments, although only a small sub-set of these are numbered as statutory instruments and published by the Stationery Office. This latter subset is composed of statutory instruments which are required to be laid before the Oireachtas or which are of general application.
In addition, a body of charters, statutory rules and orders and other secondary legislation made prior to independence in 1922 continues to be in force in Ireland insofar as such legislation has not been revoked or otherwise ceased to be in force.
Read more about this topic: Law Of The Republic Of Ireland
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