Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to join the European Communities and provided that European law would take precedence over the constitution. It was effected by the Third Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1972 which was approved by referendum on 10 May 1972 and signed into law on 8 June of the same year.

Membership of the European Communities granted powers to European institutions which the 1937 constitution had vested exclusively in the Oireachtas (parliament) and the Government. It was also possible that many provisions of the constitution might be found to be incompatible with European law. For these reasons the Third Amendment introduced a provision expressly permitting the state to join the Communities and stating in broad terms that European law has supremacy over the constitution. Although the amendment shown above is that made to the English-language version of the constitution, constitutionally it is the Irish text that has precedence.

The Third Amendment was the first to be successfully approved by Irish voters in a referendum. It was introduced by the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch but also supported by Fine Gael, the main opposition party, and by employers' and farmers' interest groups. However it was opposed by the Labour Party and Official Sinn Féin and the trade unions. The voting went 1,041,890 (83.1%) in favour and 211,891 (16.9%) against.

As Ireland had no nuclear power programme, nor any important coal and steel industries, membership of the Communities primarily concerned the European Economic Community.

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