Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Government Chief Whip, Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Deputy Tom Kitt. When he was Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs he was regularly in the House but we have not seen him since his appointment to the Departments of the Taoiseach and Defence. It is nice to see him. He has come on a mission which is entirely practical and overdue.

I remember when the concept of better regulation was launched. The Minister's speech was most practical, succinct and understandable and I commend whoever compiled it. One does not often get that. Many ministerial speeches come in weighty tomes without a beginning, middle or end. Today's speech was most concise and well put together.

As the Minister of State outlined, better regulation does not mean deregulation. In the course of the general election in the UK it has been proposed to wipe thousands of kilos of legislation off the British Statute Book and do away with this and that regulation. In many cases this does not in fact happen. It is not about deregulation but better regulation. This Bill marks an important step forward in that process.

I am most interested in this issue in which I was involved from the start. We embarked on such a programme when I had ministerial responsibility for labour affairs, trying to consolidate various items of legislation which were out of date. When I read the Bill yesterday I was struck by the names of the Acts that are scheduled to be repealed and how instructive they could be in terms of a social and commercial history lesson. I was especially interested in the many Acts on minerals in Ireland, such as the State Minerals Act. I would not have considered that we were rich in minerals although Parnell did write on his mineral finds.

The legislation from 1310 to 1800 was most interesting and led me to consider the people who enacted it. One can just imagine the clothes they wore as they rode to Parliament, and the mores they adopted and encapsulated in law. It is heartening in terms of continuity to know that legislation has been enacted for the betterment of people from the beginning, albeit that much of it is no longer relevant. I refer, in particular, to the Mining Leases Acts, the Spinners Act and the Burning of Bricks (Dublin) Act 1770. We talk about vandalism now and how it affects urban life. The Long Title of the Burning of Bricks (Dublin) Act 1770 was An Act to Prevent the Pernicious Practice of Burning Bricks Within the city of Dublin — they had alliteration then. Senator Norris will be interested in that law.