Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 23 Oct 2024

It is a pleasure to bring the Bill to the Seanad today.

The BiIl is the latest in a series of measures that have been enacted to modernise and improve public accessibility of the Statute Book and secondary legislation. It is vital that laws and regulations in Ireland are both fit for purpose, and regularly reviewed and updated.

The statute law revision programme is Ireland’s national programme to identify and remove obsolete and spent primary and secondary legislation from the Statute Book. The aim and purpose of the programme is to repeal legislation that has ceased to be in force due to changes in circumstances or the passage of time and legislation that, while technically in force, is no longer of relevance in practice. There has been a particular need for such revision in Ireland because our unique legislative past, which has left us with a complex stock of legislation, with enactments from the Parliaments of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom as well as our own Oireachtas. The statute law revision programme is responsible for six distinct but complementary Statute Law Revision Acts between 2005 and 2015, which have successfully repealed all obsolete primary legislation enacted prior to independence and, in addition, have revoked all obsolete secondary legislation made up to 1 January 1821 To date, more than 100,000 Acts and secondary instruments have been reviewed and either expressly or implicitly repealed under the programme.

This Bill, when enacted, together with the six previous Statute Law Revision Acts, will collectively be the most extensive set of repealing measures in the history of the State and the most extensive set of statute law revision measures ever enacted anywhere in the world. The benefits of statute law revision are well-documented and include the creation of certainty as to which laws remain in force, the modernisation of the Statute Book, the enhancement of public accessibility to the Statute Book and the codification or consolidation of the statute law of the State.

It is in the public interest to proceed with this Bill in that the proposals will assist in reducing the regulatory burden for business, industry and citizens by simplifying the complex stock of legislation currently on the Statute Book. The Bill will also help provide legal clarity to the area. The importance of simplifying this complex stock was noted with approval by the OECD Review of Better Regulation in Ireland 2010, which reported that initiatives, such as the Statute Law Revision Acts, were impressive efforts to address the challenge and improve accessibility.

The principal purpose of the Bill is to repeal spent and obsolete secondary instruments enacted on or after 1 January 1821 and before 1 January 1861. The Bill will also repeal those instruments enacted before 1 January 1821 that are still in force and were not repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 2015.

The process leading to the Bill involved a review carried out by the Law Reform Commission and sponsored by this Department of more than 40,000 secondary instruments to ascertain if they were obsolete or were to be repealed or retained. Of those, 3,367 will be repealed by the Bill attached to this memorandum and are listed in Schedule 2. Six instruments will be retained and are listed in Schedule 1.

I would like to make a correction to the explanatory memorandum. The fourth paragraph of the introduction mentions "5 instruments will be retained and are listed in Schedule 1." This should state, "6 instruments will be retained and are listed in Schedule 1". My apologies for the error.

I wish to outline to the House the main provisions of the Bill. Section 1 provides definitions for terms used throughout the Bill.

Section 2 revokes all instruments passed prior to 1 January 1861 other than the six retained instruments specified in the first schedule. These instruments are suitable for revocation because they have no ongoing relevance in this jurisdiction, and-or are spent ,that is, have ceased to be in force, or are obsolete - dealing with a subject matter that no longer exists, that has been superseded by subsequent legislation or that is no longer regulated by legislation.

The instruments set out in part 1 of Schedule 1 were formerly set out at reference Nos. 2, 3 and 7 of Schedule 1 to the Statute Law Revision Act 2015. This latter Schedule retained 43 instruments. A total of 40 of these instruments were "Names and Arms" instruments. The Law Reform Commission conducted further research which revealed that these "Names and Arms" instruments did not in fact require retention and these are now being revoked.

Two of the instruments being retained in Part 2 of Schedule 1 are notices defining the parts of the River Shannon over which the Shannon Commissioners may exercise their powers under the Shannon Navigation Act 1839. These were made pursuant to section 39 of the Shannon Navigation Act 1839, which remains in force. They remain valid for regulatory purposes as they define the parts of the River Shannon to which the Shannon Navigation Act 1839 applied.

The third instrument being retained in Part 2 of Schedule 1 is an 1807 order regarding the prevention of smuggling.

The revocation in section 2 of the Bill s a general revocation provision that will revoke all instruments made prior to 1 January 1861, even where those instruments are not expressly included in the Schedules.

Section 3, for ease of reference, refers to the secondary instruments specified in Schedule 2, which are revoked. There are 3,367 instruments listed in the Schedule following the review of all available secondary legislation from 1821 to1860.

Section 4 allows each instrument listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to be officially cited using the citation provided in column 4 of this Schedule.

Section 5 provides savings clauses. Section 5(1) and (2) provide that the inclusion of an Act in the Schedule shall not be construed as meaning that the Act, or any provision of it, was of full force and effect immediately before the passing of this Act.

Section 6 supplements existing evidence laws, allowing for prima facie evidence of instruments made before 1 January 1861 to be presented in courts and legal proceedings by producing a published copy from specified sources like the Dublin Gazette or The London Gazette.

Section 7 provides a Short Title for the legislation when enacted and collective citation for all the Statute Law Revision Acts to date.

Schedule 1 lists the specific instruments that are to be retained. Schedule 2 lists the instruments identified in the course of the review as appropriate for repeal at this stage because they have ceased to be relevant or have become unnecessary.

To conclude, this Bill is a rather technical piece of legislation, but an important and necessary one. It represents another step in the journey to clarify and simplify the Irish Statute Book. The Bill’s enactment will deliver benefits in facilitating the process of public governance reform, reducing the regulatory burden on businesses and citizens. It will also ensure that our Statute Book is significantly more modern and will enhance public accessibility to the laws that govern our people as they go about their business in their daily lives. I commend the Bill to the House.

The Minister of State is welcome. I acknowledge the work on this legislation. I recall speaking on the previous legislation in 2015. There were all sorts of weird and wonderful things back then and this is no different. I would just like a small bit of clarity.

The Minister of State mentioned section 2(2), which specifies all instruments "made before 1 January 1821 that were retained" and those that were "made on or after 1 January 1821 and before 1 January 1861". As a former Minister of State with responsibility for natural resources, I know that the Act that established the Geological Survey of Ireland is from 1845. I am presuming that is not included in this. It is something that is still enforced, however. When I was Minister of State, there was talk of updating the Geological Survey Act, which was an Act to facilitate the completion of a geological survey of the island. This is common sense.

I wonder in some cases why there was the need for these sorts of laws, some of which refer to apprehending people for various crimes and allegations. I picked out a number that caught my eye, as they would with me being from County Galway: Reference Number 2012 from 13 April 1830 - "Proclamation for apprehending the persons who maliciously set fire to the house and offices ... near Woodford, not far from the town of Loughrea"; Reference Number 229 from 17 September 1830 - "Proclamation for apprehending the persons who murdered Patrick McDonnell, late Deputy Clerk of the Peace for Co. Galway, whose body was found in a cellar in Shop Street, Co. Galway"; Reference Number 259 from 26 May 1831 - "Proclamation for apprehending the persons who fired at and caused the death of Sub-Constable Hugh Campbell while he was riding through the demesne of Dalystown, near the town of Loughrea, Co. Galway"; Reference Number 276 from 7 January 1832 - "Proclamation for apprehending the persons who attacked and likely killed Michael Francis near the Grotto of Dangan, opposite the village of Menlough ... [in County] Galway". There are a lot of very interesting historical issues here.

It makes perfect sense that this sort of tidying up would be done with regard to the legislation. I note Reference Number 44, again, an interesting one from 4 February 1822 - "Order approving a new Great Seal for Ireland". Thankfully, we got our own seal in 1921. It is in the Cabinet room, which I had the pleasure of seeing when I was there briefly. It is an important act of tidying up. I look forward to the progression of this Bill through the Houses.

I note as well it is repealing an Act in 1855, "Proclamation warning persons engaging in treasonable designs or attempts that they are liable to be apprehended and dealt with as traitors". One references "the distribution of prizes taken during the Russian War", which is not this particular outing but the 1854 version of the war in Russia. There a few on Sierra Leone and others. They are probably long past their sell-by dates.

I thank Senators for their contributions. I can confirm that the Geological Survey Act is not impacted by this.

The Bill we have been considering today proposes the revocation of all statutory and prerogative instruments made before 1 January 1861, except for six instruments, which will be retained. More than 40,000 secondary instruments were reviewed by the Law Reform Commission to ascertain if they were obsolete or were to be repealed or retained.

This Bill is the seventh Statute Law Revision Bill in a programme the aim of which is to ensure that Ireland has a modern and accessible Statute Book. To date, the programme has produced the following:

the Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005, which repealed a selection of pre-1922 statutes; the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, which was a comprehensive revision of pre-1922 public general Acts; the Statute Law Revision Act 2009, which revised all private Acts up to and including 1750 and all local and personal Acts up to and including 1850; the Statute Law Revision Act 2012, which revised all private Acts from 1750 to 1922 and all local and personal Acts from 1850 to 1922; the Statute Law Revision Act 2015, which revoked secondary instruments made before 1 January 1821; and the Statue Law Revision Act 2016, which revoked spent and obsolete legislation enacted between 1922 and 1950.

Tidying up all the spent and obsolete secondary instruments made between 1 January 1821 and 1 January 1861 will contribute significantly towards improving the overall regulatory environment in Ireland. It will simplify and modernise our laws and make the Statute Book more intelligible. This will save time and costs for those who need to know what laws are in force and make it easier for the public to access justice. I thank Members for their involvement in this debate, and I look forward to the further engagement on Committee Stage in due course.