Government of Ireland Act 1920

8 Executive powers

(1) The executive power in Southern Ireland and in Northern Ireland shall continue vested in His Majesty the King, and nothing in this Act shall affect the exercise of that power, except as respects Irish services as defined for the purposes of this Act.

(2) As respects Irish services, the Lord Lieutenant or other chief executive officer or officers for the time being appointed in his place, on behalf of His Majesty, shall exercise any prerogative or other executive power of His Majesty the exercise of which may be delegated to him by His Majesty:

Provided that, if any such power is delegated to the Lord .Lieutenant in respect of Southern Ireland or Northern Ireland, the power shall also be delegated to him in respect of Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland.

(3) Subject to the provisions of this Act relating to the Council of Ireland, powers so delegated shall be exercised—

(a) in Southern Ireland, through such departments as may be established by Act of the Parliament of Southern Ireland, or, subject' to any alteration by Act of that Parliament, by the Lord Lieutenant; and

(b) in Northern Ireland, through such departments as may be established by Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, or, subject to any alteration by Act of that Parliament, by the Lord Lieutenant;

and the Lord Lieutenant may appoint officers to administer those departments, and those officers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Lord Lieutenant.

(4) The persons who are for the time being heads of such departments of the Government of Southern Ireland as may be determined by Act of the Parliament of Southern Ireland or, in the absence of any such determination, by the Lord Lieutenant, and such other persons (if any) as the Lord Lieutenant may appoint, shall be the ministers of Southern Ireland:

The persons who are for the time being heads of such departments of the Government of Northern Ireland as may be determined by Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, or, in the absence of any such determination, by the Lord Lieutenant, and such other persons (if any) as the Lord Lieutenant may appoint, shall be the ministers of Northern Ireland:

Provided that—

(a) no such person shall be a minister of Southern Ireland or a minister of Northern Ireland unless he is a member of the Privy Council of Ireland; and

(b) no such person shall hold office as a minister of Southern Ireland or as a minister of Northern Ireland for a longer period than six months, unless he is or becomes a member of the Parliament of Southern Ireland or of Northern Ireland, as the case may be, but in reckoning those six months any time prior to the date of the first meeting of the Parliament of Southern Ireland or of Northern Ireland, as the case may be, or during which that Parliament stands prorogued shall be excluded; and

(c) any such person not being the head of a department of the Government of Southern Ireland or a department of the Government of Northern Ireland shall hold office as a minister of Southern Ireland or a minister of Northern Ireland during the pleasure of the Lord Lieutenant in the same manner as the head of a department of the Government of Southern Ireland or a department of the Government of Northern Ireland holds his office.

(5) The persons who are ministers of Southern Ireland for the time being shall be an executive committee of the Privy Council of Ireland (to be called the Executive Committee of Southern Ireland) to aid and advise the Lord Lieutenant in the exercise of his executive power in relation to Irish services in Southern Ireland.

The persons who are ministers of Northern Ireland for the time being shall be an executive committee of the Privy Council of Ireland (to be called the Executive Committee of Northern Ireland) to aid and advise the Lord Lieutenant in the exercise of his executive power in relation to Irish services in Northern Ireland.

(6) In the exercise of power delegated to the Lord Lieutenant in pursuance of this section no preference, privilege, or advantage shall be given to, nor shall any disability or disadvantage be imposed on, any person on account of religious belief except where the nature of the case in which the power is exercised itself involves the giving of such preference, privilege, or advantage, or the imposing of such a disability or disadvantage.

(7) The seats of the Governments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland shall be at Dublin and Belfast, respectively, or such places as the Parliaments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland may respectively determine.

(8) For the purposes of this Act, " Irish services" in relation to Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively are all public services in connection with the administration of civil government in Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, except the administration of matters with respect to which the Parliament of Southern Ireland and the Parliament of Northern Ireland have under the provisions hereinbefore contained no power to make laws, including in this exception all public services in connection with the administration of matters by this Act declared to be reserved matters so long as they continue to be reserved; and the public services in connection with the matters so reserved are in this Act referred to as reserved services.