Northern Ireland

Abstract

Under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, as amended by the Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1922 (13 Geo. V, Ch. 2, Session 2), a separate parliament and executive government were established for Northern Ireland, which comprises the parliamentary counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, and the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry. The Parliament consists of a Senate of 2 ex-officio and 24 elected persons and a House of Commons of 52 elected members. An allowance for expenses is made in the case of those members of both Houses who are not in receipt of salaries as members of the Government or as officers of Parliament, amounting to (a) 2l. 5s. a day to members of the Senate for attendance at meetings of the Senate or committees, but the total allowance to each may not exceed 90l. in any one year, unless under a declaration of insufficiency of means when an additional 100l. per annum is paid irrespective of attendance, and to (b) 210l. a year to members of the House of Commons and 2l. 2s. a day for attendance at Committees. The Parliament has power to legislate for its own area except in regard to (1) matters of Imperial concern (the Crown, making of peace or war, military, naval, and air forces, treaties, titles of honour, treason, naturalisation, domicile, external trade, submarine cables, wireless telegraphy, aerial navigation, lighthouses, etc., coinage, etc, trade marks, etc.), and (2) certain matters ‘reserved’ to the Imperial Parliament (postal service, Post Office and Trustee savings banks, designs for stamps, registration of deeds).