Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Statue Law Revision (Pre-1922) Bill provides for the repeal of 91 Acts that predate the foundation of the State. These are statutes that were enacted before 6 December 1922 that are no longer in force and are considered to be spent or are still in force but are no longer of practical utility.

This Bill is intended to help streamline the Statute Book and it forms part of the Government's overall commitment to better regulation and regulatory reform. When the Taoiseach announced his intention last year to bring forward this legislation, he noted that when it comes to the Statute Book, we tend to add and never subtract and that we need to remove the dead wood from the pre-1922 Statute Book. This is a sentiment that many of us agree with as elected representatives who have had occasion to piece together the law in particular areas. If Senators and Deputies — and indeed public officials whose job it is — have difficulty at times sourcing and interpreting the law in particular areas, what chance has the ordinary citizen, small company or community group? The introduction of this Bill takes a step towards improving the overall accessibility of the Statute Book and it represents delivery of a key commitment in the Government's White Paper, Regulating Better, which was published in January 2004.

Before outlining the substance of the Bill, it might be useful if I provided a brief background to the wider better regulation agenda and, as part of that, the contribution that Statute Law revision can make. Better regulation is increasingly used in EU and OECD countries to describe government efforts to improve the quality and, where necessary, reduce the quantity of regulation. Regulation is generally taken to include both primary and secondary legislation as well as subsidiary rules including administrative circulars and red tape. It is important to stress that better regulation is not simply deregulation. In some cases, removing regulations may be the answer while in other cases greater regulation or regulations which are more easily understood, may be required.

At the core of better regulation is the idea that we need to tackle both the flow of new legislation and rules and the existing stock of laws and regulations. The principal way in which the flow of new regulations is being tackled is through the introduction of regulatory impact analysis. This approach involves Departments consulting more widely before regulating and analysing in greater detail the likely impacts of Acts and statutory instruments before presenting them to the Oireachtas. In this way, proposed Bills and statutory instruments will benefit from being subjected to comment by interested parties and will be fully evaluated in terms of downstream impacts.

The second element of a good regulatory system is managing the stock of existing laws and rules and this is where today's Bill fits in. While it is critical to improve the quality and even stem the flow of new regulations that are coming on stream, we must simultaneously tackle the body of existing laws and regulations. Some of these laws and rules are archaic and are a heavy burden on the economy and society as a whole. That is why the Taoiseach asked the Attorney General last year to examine if it is necessary to carry forward into our Statute Book laws that were enacted as far back as the 13th century. The Bill presented today is the first step towards removing some of the redundant legislation — the dead wood.

Statute law revision is the process of removing legislation that has lost any modern purpose from the Statute Book. As Members of this House will know, the term "Statute Book" is a loose and non-technical term referring to all primary legislation — statutes or Acts — and secondary legislation — orders, regulations, rules, schemes and bye-laws — currently in force.

The Bill being discussed today, however, deals only with primary legislation. While we would all like to see as much as possible of the dead wood being cleared away, including obsolete statutory instruments, this process is resource intensive and time consuming. For the moment, resources have been focused on primary legislation but in time the Taoiseach and the Attorney General both wish to see similar measures being taken with regard to secondary legislation.

Unlike the process of law reform, law revision does not change the substantive nature of law. Its primary objective is to facilitate the users of the law, including judges, lawyers, officers of registries and bodies and the public generally. Furthermore, all Departments and the drafters of our legislation also benefit and Members of these Houses stand to gain from statute law revision.

For example, where a statute has been on the Statute Book for quite some time, and needs to be modernised or otherwise amended in the normal course of business, extensive research of subsequent statutes has to be undertaken to see if they have any effect. This involves time consuming examination of statutes many of which may be spent or otherwise deleted but which are technically unrepealed. Unless they have been formally repealed, for example by way of a Bill such as the one we are debating today, there is no way of knowing their status, short of examining them.

Ultimately, law revision facilitates the administration of justice, the enforcement of law and order and the management of the public and private sector. Removing the dead wood facilitates the process of regulatory reform and contributes to the maintenance of an updated, relevant and coherent Statute Book. It enables the legal system to operate more efficiently because it reduces time spent locating and consulting the Statute Book to determine the law on a particular point. Given the rapid growth in the size of the Statute Book, the value of statute revision can probably most usefully be seen by considering the likely size of the Statute Book in the future if nothing is done.

The pre-1922 statutory provisions comprise a complex mosaic of Acts of Irish, English and British Parliaments and Parliaments of the United Kingdom that are not available electronically. The principal sources of this legislation, consisting of public general statutes, can be divided into different periods during which the law was enacted by different parliaments as follows: Irish statutes passed by Parliaments sitting in Ireland before the union with Britain between 1200 and 1800; English statutes passed before 1495 which were applied to Ireland, largely by virtue of Poynings Law in 1495; a small number of English statutes passed between 1495 and 1707 which were applied to Ireland; a small number of British statutes, namely, statutes passed after the union of England and Scotland in 1707 but before the union of Britain and Ireland in 1800, which were applied to Ireland; and Acts of the late United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland passed after the Act of Union in 1800 but before the establishment of Saorstát Éireann in 1922.

This general body of statute law was continued in force by Article 73 of the Constitution of Saorstát Éireann and Article 50 of the Constitution of Ireland, subject to that Constitution and to the extent to which it was not inconsistent therewith. Legislation, therefore, spans as far back as 1200. Most of this legislation was enacted by the Parliament of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The industrial revolution and the development of trade in the 19th century led to increasingly detailed trade protection laws. The butter, coal, linen, tobacco and hosiery trades were all regulated during this time. From the mid-19th century onwards legislation began to reflect greater concern for individual welfare and legislation was passed dealing with a wide variety of topics such as chimney sweeps, bath and wash-houses, accidents during dangerous activities and tuberculosis.

Only a few statute law revision measures in the past two centuries have been enacted to clarify, repeal and reform the entire body of law remaining on the Statute Book. Several major statute law revision Acts in the Victorian era repealed a considerable quantity of pre-union Irish legislation. This type of omnibus repealing legislation was not repeated until 1962 and 1983. The Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act 1962 covered the years 1459 to 1800 and the Statute Law Revision Act 1983 dealt with English and British Acts which were passed during the period from 1235 to 1796 which by one means or another applied in Ireland.

Other efforts to clarify pre-1922 law included the Fisheries (Statute Law Revision) Acts of 1949 and 1956 and the Short Titles Act 1962. This latter Act assigned short titles to certain pre-union Irish statutes and English statutes that applied to Ireland in order to facilitate their citation.

Some attempts have been made to reform the post-1922 law and some legislation has updated these laws, for example, the Canals Act 1983, the Stock Exchange Act 1995 and the Criminal Law Act 1997. Ten major consolidation Acts have also been enacted which replaced a significant quantity of pre-1922 legislation.

The need for statute law revision in Ireland was recognised through the establishment in 1999 of the statute law revision unit in the Office of the Attorney General. The unit was responsible for drafting the Bill which represents the first broad-ranging statute law revision exercise for over 20 years. In the United Kingdom, more than 2,000 Acts have been repealed and at least 2,600 more partially repealed by the statute law (repeals) legislation drafted by various law commissions.

The process of repealing large amounts of legislation was made possible by the systematic undertaking of the work involved since 1965. Other EU and OECD countries have initiated similar programmes to streamline and codify their respective statute books. Senators may recall commitments made by various administrations in the USA to reductions of the order of several thousands of pages of federal regulations and even of reductions in pounds weight of internal administrative rules. In recent times, the European Commission has given commitments to the reduction by 25% of the acquis communautaire, which is the existing body of Community treaty and subsidiary law. The process of weeding out redundant EU directives and regulations is ongoing.

The Bill deals exclusively with those statutes passed before 6 December 1922 which are no longer in force and considered to be spent or which remain in force but are no longer of practical utility. Many Acts from the period continue to form the cornerstone of Irish law including the Conveyancing Act 1634, the Statute of Frauds 1695 and the Sale of Goods Act 1893. These Acts will not be affected by the Bill.

When the initial review was launched, it was decided from the point of view of time and resources to confine the exercise to an audit of legislation that was available only from The Statutes Revised, a UK publication. It was also decided to exclude private, local and personal Acts. The main source of pre-union Irish statutes was a revised version also known as Cullinan's Irish Statutes 1310 to 1800, but other sources going back to 1200 were also examined. The cut-off year of 1922 is, of course, the date from which the Irish State began to legislate for itself.

The process followed involved an examination by the statute law revision unit of The Statutes Revised to ascertain the extent to which the legislation outlined was still in force in Ireland by reference to the chronological tables pre and post-1922. The tables show how and when legislation has been amended since its enactment.

As a result of the review, a list was compiled of all legislation identified as being in force which dated from the period between 1200 and 1922. It was decided to exclude from the review areas legislation known to be the subject of active policy consideration by Departments or part of the programme for Government such as criminal law, conveyancing and land law, revenue law, liquor licensing law, water services law, consumer law, merchant shipping and fisheries law and the law relating to harbours and railways. Some 800 Acts were therefore isolated by the initial review, of which approximately 110 were identified by the statute law revision unit to be in possible need of repeal as while they were still in force, they were not, on a preliminary view, of practical utility.

The next step was to hold consultations with the public and Departments. An Internet-based public consultation process was undertaken which lasted several months while Departments were supplied with a list of Acts relevant to their respective areas of responsibility and asked for agreement with the preliminary view formed by the review unit on those Acts proposed for repeal. In many instances, multiple consultations with many officials and sections within Departments were required. It was also essential in various instances to consult subsidiary bodies and agencies with responsibility for or an interest in particular legislative provisions. It often transpired that Acts which no longer appeared to be of practical utility were, in fact, still in use. Officials were also invited to make suggestions on the modernisation of that legislation which remained in force. The result of the exercise was the list set out in the Schedule to the Bill of legislation which it is now proposed to repeal.

Since the publication of the Bill on 25 November 2004, the Office of the Attorney General has continued its detailed research on legislation which could be repealed. To determine the exact status of each Act enacted prior to 1922, the office undertook a demanding exercise of re-examination of the comprehensive source The Statutes of the Realm which now comprises the annual volumes of United Kingdom legislation. This is a more comprehensive source than The Statutes Revised as it contains, for example, the texts of Acts which may have been repealed in the United Kingdom but remain in force in this jurisdiction. The revised edition did not include those Acts. As a result of the more detailed analysis, it is expected that a significant number of additional Acts will be included for repeal in the Bill. This will be effected if the House permits by the amendment of the Schedule on Committee Stage. A draft list of additional Acts will be published over the coming days on the website of the Office of the Attorney General. Senators will have more interestingly named Acts to consider than they do already.

A separate exercise would be needed to repeal legislation enacted after independence which remains in force but is no longer of practical utility. While there are no firm plans to undertake such an exercise, it would be a very useful continuation of the Bill's streamlining approach which could be undertaken if resources permit. Work could also be undertaken to review local, personal and private enactments, secondary legislation and charters or other instruments dating from before the establishment of the State which do not take the form of statutes but nonetheless have, or potentially have, statutory effect.

The Bill before the House is short but effective. Section 1 provides for the repeal of pre-1922 legislation which consists of the public general statutes enumerated in the Schedule. Section 2 is a standard saving section and section 3 is the short title. As I indicated at the outset, the Bill should not be viewed in isolation. It is merely one step in an ongoing programme of reform of the Statute Book and the wider better regulation initiative.

The Government plans to introduce a number of other measures including a project which has commenced within the Office of the Attorney General to devise a comprehensive database of all pre-1922 public general legislation. The database will provide a template for future revision and will be electronically accessible by the public. Projects to assess pre-1922 local, personal and private Acts and pre-1922 secondary legislation will be devised after the completion of the study of public and general statutes. It is envisaged that a programme of repeal of pre-1922 legislation and re-enactment in modern form where necessary will be commenced on a Department-by-Department basis.

The repeal of the Acts identified in the Bill and of any additional Acts included for repeal on Committee Stage will create a more accessible, coherent and transparent Statute Book. The Bill falls squarely within the Government's agenda for better regulation which will bring benefits to society and the economy through lower legal and transaction costs while increasing the credibility of the legal system. The complete updating of the Statute Book is a significant task which will best be accomplished through a phased programme of measures. The Bill is an important first step and I commend its enactment to the House.