Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Two minutes out of 15 minutes — I could go on for ages. This is a minefield of social and commercial history. When we reflect on all that happened in Ireland since 1300, we think of Poynings Law, the Statutes of Kilkenny, Cromwell and his Roundheads, the Famine period, the commercial activity and the people who made laws. Even then legislators were imbued with a sense of the common good, as reflected in the laws that were passed to deal with what needed to be corrected within the community.

It is an amazing corpus of legislation because of what it evokes in the historical memory. The Government is right to appeal those Acts and I am quite sure the Attorney General has paid great attention to what might still be relevant in the old legislation. I hope he has because there might be pieces of legislation that are still relevant and we would not be any better off by repealing them. He is very thorough, however, so I am quite sure he has spent much time in deciding whether legislation should be replaced or incorporated into a new Bill for enactment.

I congratulate the Minister of State. He is sponsoring an efficient, historic and interesting Bill. I am pleased that he is here and that I have had the opportunity to use more than my allotted 15 minutes in responding.