Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Independent Ireland will support this Bill and the idea of simplifying the law to make it more accessible to the general public. The aim is to reduce compliance costs for businesses and bodies which interact with our legislation regularly. It is the stated policy of our party to achieve this across the public sector and beyond.

I wish to record our admiration for the sterling work of the Law Reform Commission on the statutory law revision programme in bringing forward this seventh Bill on the area. With 3,367 instruments to be revoked, I can imagine the detailed scrutiny involved. These are laws from 1821 to 1861 and we are only now bringing them up to date. I hope we can bring a lot of our laws up to date such that people can be protected and to avoid cases dragging on for years and decades going through court, especially when they involve people who do harm to others. There are people who are known for their criminal activity. We need to give the powers to the people to police this country and make it safer.

Independent Ireland will support the Bill and, again, I acknowledge the work done by the Law Reform Commission on this.

See this speech in context