Legal provisions for optional referendums at national level

Constitutionof Ireland

(Adoptedon December 1937, last amended June 2004)

http://www.constitution.org/cons/ireland/constitution_ireland-en.pdf

Article27.(Optional referendum)        

ThisArticle applies to any Bill, other than a Bill expressed to be a Billcontaining a proposal for the amendment of this Constitution, which shall havebeen deemed, by virtue of Article 23 hereof, to have been passed by both Housesof the Oireachtas.

5.1)In every case in which the President decides that a Bill the subject of apetition under this Article contains a proposal of such national importancethat the will of the people thereon ought to be ascertained, he shall informthe Taoiseach and the Chairman of each House of the Oireachtas accordingly inwriting under his hand and Seal and shall decline to sign and promulgate suchBill as a law unless and until the proposal shall have been approved either :

i)by the people at a Referendum in accordance with the provisions of section 2 ofArticle 47 of this Constitution within a period of eighteen months from thedate of the President’s decision, or

ii)by a resolution of D?il ?ireann passed within the said period after adissolution and re-assembly of D?il ?ireann.