Under the Act most of the functions previously performed by the King and his Governor-General were transferred to various other organs of the Irish government.
However Éamon de Valera was advised by his Attorney-General, James Geoghegan, the Secretary to the Executive Council, Maurice Moynihan, and Mr Matheson of the Parliamentary Draftsman's office that that Act did not actually abolish the office as it had an existence independent of the Constitution; to conclusively abolish the office, a blanket transfer of any remaining powers of the Governor-General would be necessary, and remaining references to the Governor-Generalship would need to be removed from Acts of the Oireachtas.
In May 1937 de Valera introduced the Executive Powers (Consequential Provisions) Act 1937 to do just that, as well as to validate the installation of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who had failed (or declined) to make the legally required declaration of office in front of the Governor-General, and to validate the appointment of a new Attorney-General, who under existing law could only be appointed by the Governor-General.
A law for this purpose, the External Relations Act, was passed shortly after the amendment was enacted.
The provision allowing the King to do this was inserted in Article 51 and read: … it shall be lawful for the Executive Council, to the extent and subject to any conditions which may be determined by law to avail, for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular agents and the conclusion of international agreements of any organ used as a constitutional organ for the like purposes by [other nations of the Commonwealth].The current Constitution of Ireland enacted in 1937, created the position of President of Ireland as head of state, but did not give the position any external functions.