Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 17, between lines 51 and 52, to insert the following:

"

".

These amendments concern the insertion of 12 Acts into Schedule 1, the list of Acts to be retained. These 12 Acts were recorded previously as repealed because one or more of the leading sources and reference texts, such as the Northern Ireland chronological tables, the HMSO chronological tables or Cullinan's The Irish Statutes, indicated that this was the case. However, following recent further analysis of the purported repealing Acts it has become apparent that these 12 Acts have not been fully repealed. In some instances, this is because of a saver clause and with each of these 12 Acts the residue has or may have some continuing effect and should therefore be retained pending further substantive law reform in the relevant areas of law. The Companies Consolidation Act 1908 and other similar Acts are being included in Schedule 1 for the sake of clarity, even though it may not strictly be necessary to list these Acts. It is important that I provide some details to explain this.

In preparing the Schedules and the amendments today, a distinction has been drawn between those Acts that have already been repealed with the saver clause limited to past events and those Acts that have a saver clause which means that the Act has an ongoing or prospective effect. The view has been taken that an Act that is repealed but is subject to a saver clause dealing only with past transactions is treated as not in force for our purposes. Indeed, under the Interpretation Act 2005 and previous interpretation legislation, repeal of an Act did not interfere with certain past transactions. Therefore, if one were to regard such a saver clause as preventing a full repeal from taking place, no Act would ever be fully repealed.

By contrast, an Act that has been repealed but was subject to a saver clause with an ongoing or prospective effect has been treated for the purposes of the pre-independence project as remaining in force. This is because it can affect future events. The Companies Consolidation Act 1908 and other similar Acts fall into this category. Although these Acts are repealed, certain provisions are continued for the purpose of effecting the ongoing operation of companies to which the Acts applied. To provide the clearest possible list of Acts to be treated as "in force", we decided to list these Acts in Schedule 1. However, I emphasise that their inclusion is purely for the sake of clarity and readability, even though it may not be strictly necessary.

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