Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil will support the Bill. This legislation is part of an ongoing process, which began in 2005, to create a modern and streamlined Irish Statute Book and, in turn, making that Statute Book more accessible to the citizen and to the business community. This Bill continues a process of clearing away the dead wood of thousands of redundant and obsolete Acts which were clogging up the Statute Book. Many of these laws were brought in long before Ireland's independence.

The Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005 and the Statute Law Revision Acts 2007, 2009 and 2012 repealed many Acts enacted between 1751 and 1922. This Bill focuses on Acts enacted between 1922 and 1950. I understand that all 1,124 public general Acts enacted between 1922 and 1950 were reviewed and 297 Acts have been selected for repeal as part of this Bill.

As the Minister of State has said, the amendment to the Bill passed by the Seanad reverses the repeal of Statute 40 Geo. 3 c. 66 - association for discountenancing vice. This Act was repealed in the Statute Law Revision Bill 2007. Indeed, the confusion surrounding that particular provision shows that while much effort may go into a public consultation process, things do fall between the cracks. It is something we all need to be aware of and attuned to in considering both statute law revision and the repeal of Acts.

The process of condensing the Irish Statute Book to make it more relevant and accessible was begun in 2005 under the Fianna Fáil-led Government. As I said, previous Acts in this respect dealt with Acts enacted pre-1922 or pre-Independence and are part of a process of making the Irish Statute Book more accessible and relevant. The importance of that particular aim is that the Statute Book, which outlines laws and legislation, should be accessible and needless, and dead wood legislation makes it less accessible to the citizens who may seek protection or defence from those Acts within it.

When Ireland gained Independence in 1922, it passed an act to inherit all laws that had previously applied to the jurisdiction, meaning many ancient laws, including those passed in Westminster while Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, still apply today unless they have been repealed in some way. The continued presence of redundant legislation is misleading for the user who may believe by virtue of it simply remaining on the Statute Book that it is still relevant and in force. The user of the Statute Book may have to undertake the time-consumIng task of carefully analysing a statute only to come to the conclusion that it no longer applies. As was noted in previous debates on the subject, it is not appropriate that laws from the pre-Independence era remain in force here indefinitely.

The volume of old legislation is so great that the only way to approach the question of statute law revision is to proceed in stages and this process must continue following the enactment of the Bill. The Statute Law Revision Act 2012 repealed all statutes enacted before Irish Independence on 6 December 1922, with the exception of statutes specified in Schedule 1 to the Act and to the Statute Law Revision Acts of 2007 and 2009.

Previous phases of the statute law revision project reviewed public general Acts - the 2007 Act - and local and personal Acts up to 1850 and private Acts up to 1750 - the 2009 Act. This Bill complements that process by repealing all local and personal Acts enacted after 1850 and before 6 December 1922 and all private Acts enacted after 1750 and before 6 December 1922, with the exception of a white list of Acts that are specifically preserved.

The Bill repeals an estimated 2,900 obsolete Acts enacted between 1751 and Irish Independence in 1922. The list of Bills covered is fascinating and represents a slice of Irish history in a very different pre-lndependence era. Examples of the type of old laws that are repealed are private divorce Acts, designed to dissolve marriages in the days when there was no judicial divorce jurisdiction in Ireland. The Bill also repeals obsolete statutes relating to the conferring of citizenship on non-nationals, again dating back to a period when Ministers had no power to confer naturalisation and it had to be done by parliament. In addition, it repeals such Acts as the Earl of Ranelagh Schools Act 1759, vesting the several estates granted by Richard, late Earl of Ranelagh, for erecting and supporting two charity schools at the town of Athlone and two charity schools in the town of Roscommon, in the incorporated society, and for other purposes.

The Bill specifies 790 old legislative measures which are still relevant and are being specifically kept in force. One of those Acts is the Saint Stephen’s Green (Dublin) Act 1877, which formally opened the green to regulated public use and which gives the "Chief Secretary or Under Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", now the Minister for Finance, the authority to issue bylaws relating to its use. Other Acts being retained are the Dublin Science and Art Museum Act, passed in the same year, which formally established the entitles now known as the National Museum and National Library. It shows that while many of the Acts may be old, they were far-seeing.

As part of the current programme of statute law revision initiated in 2003, a total of almost 5,000 old Acts have already been eliminated. One similar previous law, passed in 2005, removed the 700-year obligation for every citizen of Ireland to own a bow and arrow and to practise archery, but also withdrew the law which abolished pillory, the act of locking someone into stocks so that they could be pelted with tomatoes. Other obsolete laws that have previously been struck from the Statute Book included the Adulteration of Coffee Act, which imposed a £20 fine on "evil disposed persons who have at the time or soon after the roasting of coffee made use of water, grease, butter or such like materials, whereby the same is rendered unwholesome and greatly increased in weight". When one considers the quality of coffee in some places in this city, it might be no harm to bring that back into force. When this Bill is enacted, the total repealed legislation will rise to almost 8,000 Acts which are deemed inapplicable and are implicitly repealed by legislation.

While it is interesting from a historical perspective to pick out some elements of legislation, it must not become a historical process. The process of constantly reviewing the Statute Book must continue. We must ensure it is kept up to date and accessible, and that it does not intimidate those who wish to use it for their defence or to protect their rights as citizens of the Republic. It is important that the Minister states that this process will continue. Perhaps, in the spirit of this Bill, there should be legislation to provide for this process to occur every five years to ensure we keep our Statute Book as relevant, practical and, importantly, accessible as possible.

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