Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Amendments Nos. 26 to 28, inclusive, proposed by Deputies Ó Snodaigh and O'Brien relate to attempts to delete or amend the practical proposal in regard to immediate publication on the Internet of Bills in one of the official languages on enactment while we wait for several weeks for the translation in the other official language to become available.

I oppose these amendments. I have given the reasons behind the proposals at all previous Stages of the Bill in the House and I reiterate them. There is no question of diminishing the status of the Irish language. The reality is that we enact legislation through English, Bills are initially drafted in English, amendments are tabled in English and they appear initially in their final form in English. There is no point in engaging in a fiction or pretending it is different and depriving ordinary citizens of the country from having immediate access to legislation passed in the Parliament. It is an important right of citizens of the State to have ready access and, in so far as we can provide it, instant access to the legislation that we enact through both Houses. The changes are included in this Bill because it is a miscellaneous provisions Bill and it is a matter of civil law, not criminal law. It is appropriate that these changes are included in the Bill

Kicking the can down the road on this issue to include it in a different Bill will not change the problem, vary the issue or change the solution. The situation in practice has been that when Report Stage of Bills has been completed there has been an undue delay between the enactment of the Bills through both Houses and the publication of the final version of Bills as Acts in both the English and Irish languages. Under the Official Languages Act 2003 the issue is that upon proper and full publication an Act must be published simultaneously in both Irish and English. Since that legislation was passed, the use of electronic means to communicate has evolved and become more sophisticated. Deputies can access Bills on the web as they go through the various Stages. We are in the anomalous position that once a Bill has completed its passage through both Houses it seems that it cannot in its final form be immediately published and made available by way of electronic means because there must be a delay while translations are effected.

It makes no sense that access can be gained by electronic means to a Bill after it has passed Committee Stage in its new form, including any amendments, after it has passed Report Stage in one House, after it has passed Committee Stage in a second House, but that once it has completed Report Stage in the second House, that Bill may remain unpublished in its final form for some time. We must recognise the reality and the rights of citizens to gain access as rapidly as possible to legislation enacted in both Houses when it is in its final form following completion of the legislative process. The previous Government intended to include in its Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010 a provision to address this issue and it had commenced work in that regard.

The current Attorney General has given the same advice as her predecessor, that is to say, that it is necessary to do this because there is a frailty in the law and it is unwise that we postpone it at any further. As I have stated already, the amendment was requested to be included in the Bill by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, and it is the advice of the Attorney General that it was necessary to be so included. There is no benefit to the workings of the House, to the people or to citizens living outside this country who may have an interest in legislation being passed in the House that may impact on their lives, that following or completing the process they cannot access it immediately in its final form through electronic means. This applies as much to this measure as it does to all measures enacted in the past. The benefit is that when this change is made in the case of all future legislation enacted within a short period after this process is complete the legislation will become available to those who wish to access it.

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