Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to first call out the key role the Law Reform Commission has played in bringing this Bill before us. Its work is not normally or necessarily headline-grabbing but represents a vital and painstaking role in keeping our law under review and researching law with a view to reform.

Our Statute Book should be reflective of the laws that govern us and free of historical instruments that simply no longer apply. Making that happen is expert, arduous and technical work and a true act of public service. Táim fíor-bhuíoch as an obair sin.

This Bill shines a light on how much has changed in a relatively short space of time. We see mentions of people being sentenced to transportation, prohibition of vice and in 1846, prayers against famine. It also gives a snapshot of a nation which was increasingly struggling for its independence. Meetings organised by Daniel O'Connell on home rule were being prohibited. Most of the people affected by these warrants and orders would not see self government in their own lifetime.

It is important to consign colonial laws to history. It is also important that we do not forget them. Is fúinn atá sé foghlaim ón stair. These statutes have so much to teach us. They paint a picture of our past which at times can seem so abstract. In this Bill there are proclamations requiring slaves in the East Indies to submit to the law, ports being declared proper for importing goods from the East India Company; proclamations prohibiting vice and immorality and encouraging piety and virtue. These are reminders that without the checks and balances of recognising our common humanity and the rights of all, we can see laws that bring about grave injustices, that the trade, goods and money that flows across this world can seem so innocuous reaching our shores but is dyed in the blood of those far from our borders; that the control, particularly of women and LGBT people, as immoral and sinful is still something we tackle today in the oppression that they face. On the other hand, the 1856 proclamation of thanksgiving that peace in Europe was restored at the end of the Crimean war, is a reminder that we must strive for peace, that it is the ordinary people who are caught up in the crossfire of warring countries and that we have seen the scourge of war in Europe across the centuries. What we do with that is the test of every generation. Tá súil agam go mbeimid in ann bóthar níos fearr a roghnú agus go bhfuilimid dáiríre faoi na ceachtanna seo a fhoghlaim.

While the removal of outdated laws from our Statute Book is welcome there is still much work to do to provide us with a modern, updated Statute Book. We face many choices of what we do and who we become as a nation even now. I hope we choose well and with this Bill coming before the House that we are serious about learning the lessons of the past.

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