The Constitution of Ireland mandates that "Titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the State",[2] but this does not preclude the creation of chivalric orders or other civic awards.
The Act of Union 1800's passage through the Parliament of Ireland was, notoriously, helped by the offer to legislators of British and Irish peerages and other honours; the 1783 introduction of the Order of St. Patrick was a similar source of patronage and compliance.
[4] In the debate on Article 5 in the Third Dáil/Provisional Parliament,[o 1] Darrell Figgis proposed an absolute prohibition, alluding to the contemporary scandal surrounding the sale of British peerages.
[o 3] He and William Norton expressed opposition to an Order of Merit, and suggested that the French Legion of Honour was used to reward political cronies.
[18] In the Republic from 1943 the Chief Herald of Ireland has been part of the Genealogical Office and continues to grant arms to individuals and corporate persons.
[o 9] The Department of the Taoiseach file on Bell's question, released in 2021 under the thirty-year rule, pointed out that Bob Geldof, a prominent Irish recipient of an honorary British MBE, had derided the idea of an Irish honours system, and that there was widespread public suspicion that politicians would abuse any honours system to reward cronies.
[23] In June 1998, Ruairi Quinn said "opposition to an honours system in the past arose out of the sense that it conveyed some kind of quasi-aristocratic benediction on the recipient.
"[o 18] In December 1998,[o 19] Ruairi Quinn asked "Does the Taoiseach share a concern which seems to form part of the thinking behind the recommendations in the committee's report that politicians cannot be trusted with the allocation of any kind of honours system?"
[14][o 20] In November discussions took place between party nominees: Séamus Brennan for Fianna Fáil, Maurice Manning for Fine Gael and Michael Ferris for Labour.
[o 21] The discussion paper, having examined other countries' systems, proposed the President bestowing a medal and parchment certificate on the recommendation of an independent panel.
[14] However, discussion broke down as Fianna Fáil wanted the government to be allowed to make recommendations, which the Opposition parties objected to on the basis that it would politicise the process.
In 2003, Bertie Ahern suggested that the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure and Privilege should set up a sub-committee chaired by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to examine the question.
[o 26] Bertie Ahern supported the idea of introducing an honours scheme in media interviews after golfer Pádraig Harrington had won the 2007 British Open.
[27] In 2023, a bill modelled on Quinn's was reintroduced in the Seanad by the Independent group and given qualified support on behalf of the Fine Gael–Fianna Fáil–Green government by junior minister Hildegarde Naughton.
[o 31] In the ten years to 2004, two people applied for permission: Tony O'Reilly for a British knighthood, and John F. Coyne for a Malaysian Panglima Jasa Negara.
[30] The cabinet considered six further awards, all from the UK, between 2016 and 2023: two were approved,[31][o 35] including Louise Richardson,[31] to whom President Michael D. Higgins later apologised for "clumsily calling out her title as dame of the British Empire".
[41] The March 2007 report of the Taskforce on Active Citizenship chaired by Mary Davis said:[42] The Fianna Fáil–Green Party government's programme after the 2007 election endorsed this recommendation.
[43] In July 2009, the McCarthy Report, on government cuts in response to the post-2008 economic downturn, recommended closing the Active Citizenship Office, and this was done from the next tax year.
[44] On Saint Patrick's Day 2012, Eamon Gilmore, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, announced that the Fine Gael–Labour government had decided to create a "Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad".
[25] The President confers the award annually, to a maximum of ten "people living abroad who have given sustained and distinguished service to Ireland".