Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As many Deputies will know, the Magna Carta is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year. It is of note that aspects of it and of the Irish Magna Carta of 1216 continue in force in Ireland today. In addition to revoking secondary instruments, the Bill amends the Statutory Instruments Act 1947 by removing the exemption of certain statutory instruments or classes of statutory instruments from publication. This will lead to greater transparency in our Statute Book.

Statute law revision concerns the removal of legislation from the Statute Book which is no longer relevant or the purpose of which is exhausted. The purpose of such revision is to enhance public accessibility to the Statute Book and pave the way for further modernisation measures. There is a particular need for such revision in Ireland because our unique legislative past has left us with a complex stock of legislation, with enactments from Parliaments of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Ireland’s pre-Independence statute law consists of primary legislation - public, local and personal, and private Acts of Parliament - and secondary legislation, such as Government proclamations and orders. Best practice in regulatory governance requires states to review their stock of legislation on a regular basis and to repeal and revoke legislation which is spent, unused, unnecessary or otherwise appropriate for removal from their statute books.

This Bill continues the important work of the statute law reform programme. This work is part of the 2011-16 programme for Government and is a specific element of the 2014-16 public service reform plan. The current programme of statute law revision was established in 2003 and has resulted in the Statute Law Revision Acts of 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2012. Collectively, these Acts have expressly or implicitly repealed approximately 95% of pre-Independence primary legislation. In 2012, the statute law revision programme transferred from the Office of the Attorney General to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The Statute Law Revision Act 2012 was enacted following the transfer of the programme to that Department. This completed the review of pre-Independence primary legislation.

In July 2013, the Government approved a second phase of statute law revision, including the drafting of this legislation to revoke secondary instruments. As the approval of the heads of this Bill predated the introduction of Order 123A, the general scheme of the Bill was not forwarded for pre-legislative scrutiny. However, a draft list of instruments and details of the Bill was published. The preparation of this Bill began in September 2013 with the chronological identification and assessment of numerous secondary instruments, such as orders, proclamations and similar instruments. There is no single source, or even index, of pre-Independence secondary instruments applicable to Ireland. As a result, a full review of items contained in The Dublin Gazette, The London Gazetteand certain other printed collections was carried out by the statute law revision programme. Secondary instruments identified following this review were examined to ascertain whether they were applicable to Ireland and suitable for revocation.

Forty instruments that were applicable to Ireland but are not suitable for repeal are listed in Schedule 1 for retention. A total of 5,782 instruments were identified as suitable for revocation and have been listed in Schedule 2. As with previous statute law revision legislation, the format of this Bill involves revoking all instruments coming within its ambit, except those listed in Schedule 1. However, Schedule 2 provides for information purposes a list of revoked instruments. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform engaged in a consultation exercise with other affected Departments in preparation for the introduction of this Bill. A draft list of instruments and details of the Bill was published on the website of the Department in September of last year. In addition, relevant bodies and organisations that could potentially be affected by proposed repeals continue to be made aware of the ongoing work of the statute law revision programme.

I wish to outline the main provisions of the Bill. Section 1 is the interpretation section. I want to refer to one definition in particular. The word "instrument", which is a key term in the Bill, is defined to cover three categories of instrument. The first category covers any instrument that describes itself as "an order, regulation, rule, bye-law, scheme, or proclamation" if it was made under statutory, charter or executive or administrative authority or if it was published in The Dublin Gazetteor The London Gazette. The second category covers similar instruments irrespective of their descriptions but which are "of a regulatory, general or public nature" if such instruments were made under statutory, charter or executive or administrative authority or were published in The Dublin Gazetteor The London Gazette. This category will capture instruments that are akin to orders, regulations and rules but do not describe themselves as such. The definition specifically excludes charters and letters patent, because they will be the subject of a separate Bill in accordance with the Government decision of July 2013 to which I referred earlier. The third category covers instruments referred to in Schedule 2, which lists instruments that will be revoked by this Bill.

Section 2(1) is the central feature of this Bill. It provides for a fundamental clarification and simplification of the Statute Book by drawing a line at 1 January 1821 and revoking all instruments passed prior to that point except, as I have outlined, for instruments listed in Schedule 1.

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Schedule 1 contains the instruments which it is considered necessary to retain.

Section 2(2)(a) saves the instruments in Schedule 1. Section 2(2)(b) saves, for the avoidance of doubt, any transitional or continuing provision that applies to any instrument that has already been revoked prior to the present Bill. Section 2(4) provides a clear new power to revoke the instruments in Schedule 1, as in some cases the original power to revoke has ceased to apply, such as where the order was made under the prerogative, or has become unworkable.

Section 3(1) provides that for information purposes, Schedule 2 will list the instruments identified by the statute law revision programme as coming within the scope of the revocation by section 2. These are the specific instruments which were identified as being obsolete, unnecessary or as having ceased to be in force. Section 3(2) provides that an instrument being omitted from Schedule 2 does not imply that the instrument is saved. Section 3(3) provides that the inclusion of an instrument in Schedule 2 does not deem it to have been of full force and effect immediately prior to the Act.

Section 4 assigns citations to any instrument that is listed in Schedule 1. The section is based on section 4 of the Statute Law Revision Acts 2007 and 2009. However, unlike those Acts, there is no reference to existing citations as none of the instruments already had citations. Section 5 provides for a standard savings clause and is based on section 9(1) of the Statute Law Revision Act 2007 and section 6(1) of both the subsequent Acts.

Section 6 amends the Statutory Instruments Act 1947 to remove the ability to exempt statutory instruments from publication. Section 6(a)(i) inserts a new subsection 2A into the Act of 1947, to exempt instruments made under certain sections of the Defence Act 1954 and the Defence (Amendment) Act 1990 from the operation of the general application of the Act of 1947. Instruments made under those sections will not be affected by the amendments to the 1947 Act.

Section 6(a)(ii) repeals sections 3 and 4 of the Act of 1947 and section 6(a)(iii) removes references to directions from section 2 of the Act of 1947, which is a consequential amendment. This will have the effect of removing the power, which has existed for nearly 70 years, to exempt instruments from normal publication. I hope the House will agree that this provision is a further important step towards transparency in our Statute Book.

Paragraph (b) of section 6 will delete the obligation of the stationery office to send hard copies of all instruments to the chambers of commerce. As all statutory instruments are now available online, the need to send out hard copies has significantly lessened and the removal of this provision will achieve savings and greater efficiency.

Section 7 provides for evidence of instruments and is based on section 8 of the 2007 Act. There are, however, a greater number of sources for the pre-1820 instruments. It also includes a number of abbreviations used in the Schedules. Section 8 provides for the powers in relation to evidence of early Acts to transfer from the Taoiseach to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. This reflects the transfer of the programme to the Department in 2012, to which I alluded earlier. Section 9 provides for a Short Title and collective citations, including a collective citation for the 36 previous Statute Law Revision Acts.

Schedule 1 lists the instruments to be retained. Each part of Schedule 1 lists the instruments which it is considered are not appropriate for revocation at this stage and are being retained in force specifically. The format of the Schedule is based on the Schedules to the Statute Law Revision Acts 2007, 2009 and 2012 with the addition of a new column 1 with a reference number and a new column 4 to identify the Minister conferred with a revocation power in respect of that instrument pursuant to section 2(5).

Schedule 2 lists the specific instruments identified in the course of the review as appropriate for revocation at this stage because they have ceased to be relevant or have become unnecessary. They will be instruments which, while applicable to Ireland, have been identified in the course of the review as appropriate for revocation because they are spent, obsolete or have otherwise become unnecessary, and where no existing revocation has been identified at this stage of the research. They are not saved by the saver in section 2 and thus will cease to be in force following enactment of this Bill. Other instruments that do not relate to Ireland or have only a tenuous connection with Ireland will not be included in Schedule 2 but will be revoked by virtue of the general revocation in section 2.

Having regard to the volume of legislation involved and the careful analysis given to each instrument, it is clear that this Bill is the culmination of a significant programme of work. Indeed, over a 13-year period the Statute Law Revision programme has produced five Bills and completed a meticulous examination of 60,000 Acts of Parliament and many thousand secondary instruments. It has required meticulous research which has underpinned further modernisation and accessibility measures. It enables the Law Reform Commission to make available electronically the majority of Acts that were retained by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007. For the first time, most of the pre-1922 public general Acts that remain in force are now available electronically. In addition, the statute law revision programme has provided assistance to other Departments in relation to the repeal and re-enactment in modern form of pre-1922 Acts in some subsequent sector-specific legislation. The project staff also received texts of legal instruments and valuable assistance and co-operation from the Oireachtas Library and the National Library. I wish to express my gratitude to those institutions for their continued support and assistance.

This Bill is somewhat technical in nature, requiring a detailed outline of its provisions, but all of us in this House and in the other House, as custodians of the Irish Statute Book, have a duty to ensure the book is modernised and that unnecessary or obsolete elements are removed to make it accessible and transparent and to enable the public to interact with the laws of their land as they go about their business. The Bill we are debating on Second Stage today is a significant step on a journey which has been taking place for the past 13 years. I look forward to the debate in this and the other House and to the subsequent passage of the Bill.

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