The first president assumed office in 1938, and became recognised internationally as head of state in 1949 after the coming into effect of the Republic of Ireland Act.

The Constitution of Ireland provides for a parliamentary system of government, by which the role of the head of state is largely a ceremonial one.

As a result, it is considered controversial for the president to be contacted by the leaders of any political parties in an effort to influence a decision made using the discretionary powers.

The most notable instance of this was in January 1982, when Patrick Hillery instructed an aide, Captain Anthony Barber, to ensure that no telephone calls from the opposition were to be passed on to him.

[35] If requested to do so by a petition signed by a majority of the membership of the Seanad and one-third of the membership of the Dáil, the president may, after consultation with the Council of State, decline to sign into law a bill (other than a bill to amend the constitution) they consider to be of great "national importance" until it has been approved by either the people in a referendum or the Dáil reassembling after a general election, held within eighteen months.

[41] This power would allow the president to step in if, in extraordinary circumstances, the ordinary procedures for convening the houses had broken down.

A presidential election is held in time for the winner to take office the day after the end of the incumbent's seven-year term.

In a vacancy or where the president is unavailable, the duties and functions of the office are carried out by a presidential commission, consisting of the chief justice, the ceann comhairle (speaker) of the Dáil, and the cathaoirleach (chairperson) of the Seanad.

Routine functions, such as signing bills into law, have often been fulfilled by the presidential commission when the president is abroad on a state visit.

Vacancies in the presidency have occurred three times: on the death in office of Erskine Hamilton Childers in 1974, and on the resignations of Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh in 1976 and Mary Robinson in 1997.

To highlight the significance of the event, all key figures in the executive (the government of Ireland), the legislature (Oireachtas) and the judiciary attend, as do members of the diplomatic corps and other invited guests.

[52] Either house of the Oireachtas may instigate the latter process by passing an impeachment resolution, provided at least thirty members move it and at least two-thirds support it.

Áras an Uachtaráin is protected by armed guards from the Garda Síochána and Defence Forces at all times, and is encircled by security fencing and intrusion detection systems.

At all times the president travels with an armed security detail in Ireland and overseas, which is provided by the Special Detective Unit (SDU), an elite wing of the Irish police force.

However to save money the first Inter-Party Government replaced the Irish horses by Japanese motorbikes, which the then Minister for Defence believed would be "much more impressive".

[53] At the presidential inauguration in 1945, alongside the mounted escort on horseback, president-elect Seán T. O'Kelly rode in the old state landau of Queen Alexandra.

The president also has the full use of all Irish Air Corps aircraft at his/her disposal if so needed, including helicopters and private jets.

Treaties, therefore, were signed in the name of the King of Ireland, who also accredited ambassadors and received the letters of credence of foreign diplomats.

This role meant, in any case, that George VI was the Irish head of state in the eyes of foreign nations.

Most of its occupants to that time followed Hyde's precedent-setting conception of the presidency as a conservative, low-key institution that used its ceremonial prestige and few discretionary powers sparingly.

In fact, the presidency was such a quiet position that Irish politicians sought to avoid contested presidential elections as often as possible, feeling that the attention such elections would bring to the office was an unnecessary distraction,[58] and office-seekers facing economic austerity would often suggest the elimination of the office as a money-saving measure.

His successor, Patrick Hillery, was also involved in a controversy in 1982, when then-Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald requested a dissolution of the Dáil Éireann.

Hillery's conduct regarding the dissolution affair in 1982 came to light in 1990, imbuing the office with a new sense of dignity and stability.

[citation needed] Between 1990 and 2010, both Robinson and her successor President McAleese (1997–2011) visited the Palace on numerous occasions, while senior members of the British royal family – the then-Prince of Wales (now Charles III); the Duke of York; Prince Edward, then Earl of Wessex; and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh – all visited both presidents of Ireland at Áras an Uachtaráin.

At the funeral for a child murdered by the Real IRA in Omagh she symbolically walked up the main aisle of the church hand-in-hand with the Ulster Unionist Party leader and then First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble.

But in other instances, Mary McAleese had been criticised for certain comments, such as a reference to the way in which Protestant children in Northern Ireland had been brought up to hate Catholics just as German children had been encouraged to hate Jews under the Nazi regime, on 27 January 2005, following her attendance at the ceremony commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.

[66][67] These remarks caused outrage among Northern Ireland's unionist politicians, and McAleese later apologised[68] and conceded that her statement had been unbalanced.

However, it suggested that the Constitution should be amended to explicitly declare the president to be head of state (at present that term does not appear in the text), and that consideration be given to the introduction of a constructive vote of no confidence system in the Dáil, along the lines of that in Germany.

In an October 2009 poll, concerning support for various potential candidates in the 2011 presidential election conducted by the Sunday Independent, a "significant number" of people were said to feel that the presidency is a waste of money and should be abolished.

[69] The functions of the president were exercised by the Presidential Commission from the coming into force of the Constitution on 29 December 1937 until the election of Douglas Hyde in 1938, and during the vacancies of 1974, 1976, and 1997.