PART I

Preliminary and General

1. —(1) This Act may be cited as the British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999 .

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as, by order or orders made by the Taoiseach under this section, may be fixed therefor either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so fixed for different purposes and different provisions and for the repeal of different enactments effected by section 38 (1).

2. —(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Agreement” means the Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing Implementation Bodies done at Dublin on the 8th day of March, 1999, the text of which is set out in the Schedule to this Act;

“a Body” means an implementation body and “the Bodies” shall be construed accordingly;

“the British-Irish Agreement” means the Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland done at Belfast on the 10th day of April, 1998;

“function” includes a power and a duty and a reference to the performance of a function includes, in respect of a power, a reference to the exercise of the power and, in respect of a duty, a reference to the carrying out of the duty;

“implementation body” means an implementation body established by the Agreement;

“the Multi-Party Agreement” means the Agreement reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations at Belfast on the 10th day of April, 1998, and set out in Annex 1 to the British-Irish Agreement;

“the Northern Ireland Minister” means any Minister in Northern Ireland or a department in Northern Ireland of which such a Minister is head;

“the North/South Ministerial Council” means the body established by the Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing a North/South Ministerial Council done at Dublin on the 8th day of March, 1999.

(2) This Act shall be construed with due regard to the Multi-Party Agreement, the British-Irish Agreement and the Agreement (in so far as this Act makes provision in pursuance of, or supplementary or incidental to, the Agreement).

(3) In this Act—

(a) a reference to a Part or section is a reference to a Part or section of this Act unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended,

(b) a reference to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph is a reference to the subsection, paragraph or subparagraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended, and

(c) a reference to any enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended, adapted or extended, whether before or after the passing of this Act, by or under any subsequent enactment.

3. —At meetings of the North/South Ministerial Council the Government may be represented by one or more of the following, that is to say, the Taoiseach, other Ministers of the Government and Ministers of State.

4. — At meetings of the British-Irish Council established by the Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing a British-Irish Council done at Dublin on the 8th day of March, 1999, the Government may be represented by one or more of the following, that is to say, the Taoiseach, other Ministers of the Government and Ministers of State.

5. — If, in any respect, any difficulty arises in bringing any provision of this Act or the Agreement into operation or in relation to the operation of any such provision, the Taoiseach may by regulations do anything which appears to him or her to be necessary or expedient for removing that difficulty, for bringing that provision into operation or for securing or facilitating its operation, and any such regulations may modify any provision of this Act so far as may be necessary or expedient for carrying such provision into effect for the purposes aforesaid, but no regulations shall be made under this section in relation to any provision of this Act after the expiration of 3 years commencing on the day on which the provision came into operation.

6. — Whenever an order (other than an order under section 1 (2)) or regulation is proposed to be made under this Act a draft of the order or regulation shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order or regulation, as the case may be, shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.

7. — The expenses incurred by the Minister for Finance in the administration of this Act shall be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas and the expenses incurred by any other Minister of the Government in such administration shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.