Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Work on the updating of the Statute Book has gone on for almost a decade. The statutes were put on CD-ROM, the statutory instruments were listed, the pre-1922 legislation was dealt with and the Statute Law (Restatement) Act was passed four years ago. The 2,600 Acts are to be dealt with — 2,300 will be amended while 300 will remain and be brought forward by means of the white list. That work will continue for some time. A number of phases have to be dealt with. Since the enactment of the Statute Law (Restatement) Act there have been four restatements in the areas of consumer law, defence, tourist traffic and succession.

On Deputy Joe Higgins's point about how the House is involved, all the legislation is brought before the House. I am keen that there should be more restatements, particularly for Acts that have a wide application and impact on citizens and businesses. In May I announced a two-month consultation process on the restatement programme. The results of that consultation will inform the Government in deciding which Acts will be restated as a priority. The Law Reform Commission will play a role in that it will undertake the restatement project.

The value of restatement is that as we get the legislation up to date, for example, in the case of Bills that are regularly enacted such as the Finance Bill and the Social Welfare Bill, which are introduced every year, the restatement process will automatically update the Act without it having to go through the House each time so that practitioners, students of the law and people who follow this work will have an up-to-date version of the law. This is very important for those people. Under this process no amendments can be made to the law, it is simply restated. Only the House can amend laws. If a particular Bill has been amended half a dozen times, one will be able to access the current Bill without having to go back to all the individual Bills. That will be helpful and useful for people who use legislation regularly.

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