Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924

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Constitution of the Council of Defence.

8.—(1) There shall be and there is hereby constituted a Council of Defence to assist the Minister for Defence in the administration of the business of the Department of Defence, but without derogating from the responsibility of the Minister for Defence to the Dáil for all the administration and business of the Department of Defence and for the exercise and performance of all the powers, duties and functions connected therewith.

(2) The Council of Defence shall consist of the following members, namely the Minister for Defence, who (under the style of “Commander-in-Chief”) shall be Chairman of the Council of Defence, and four other members amongst whom shall be distributed the principal divisions or branches of the business of the Council of Defence, that is to say, a civil member being a member of Dáil Eireann who shall be responsible to the Minister for Defence for the finance of the Military Defence Forces and for so much of the other business of the Council of Defence as may be from time to time assigned to him by the Minister for Defence and who shall act as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence and three military members being commissioned members of the said Defence Forces who shall be the Chief of Staff, the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General and shall be respectively responsible to the Minister for Defence for the administration of so much of the business relating to the raising, training, organisation, disposition, personnel, supply, equipment, armament, management, discipline, control and maintenance of the Defence Forces as shall be from time to time assigned to them or any of them by the Minister for Defence.

(3) The Minister for Defence may specially reserve to himself any of the business of the Council of Defence.

(4) The Secretary of the Department of Defence shall act as Secretary of the Council of Defence and shall perform such duties as may be from time to time assigned to him by the Minister for Defence.

(5) Each of the military members of the Council of Defence shall hold that office at the pleasure of the Executive Council acting upon the recommendation of the Minister for Defence, but in no case for a longer period continuously than three years.

(6) The Council of Defence shall meet and act as a collective body and shall be collectively responsible to the Minister for Defence for all matters entrusted to it in its collective capacity whether by any Act of the Oireachtas or otherwise.

(7) The Council of Defence may, subject to the approval of the Minister for Defence, regulate its own procedure and time and place of meeting but it shall meet whenever required by the Minister for Defence so to do and in any case there shall be at least one meeting of the Council every six months.