Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

It is over a year since the Minister of State was in the House on this matter, although the initial Bill was published some time before that, and we welcome him back. As he said, the first amendment relates exclusively to an incorrect reference in one of the Acts concerned and there is no debate about that; we all accept it.

The second amendment refers to an additional number of statutes the Minister of State is putting in the Schedule to revise as obsolete. I understand he has gone from 91 to 219. If we were to wait another year or six months would we find another 50 or 80 pieces of obsolete, inoperable and irrelevant legislation? I pose this question with regard to amendment No. 2.

The Minister of State is correct to pay tribute to the staff of the Office of the Attorney General for the ongoing research and considerable work in recent years in detailing irrelevant legislation in the Statute Book. Is this matter likely to be revisited in future, and will there be, for example, a new statute law revision every 18 months or two years? Will a second version of the Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Bill come before the Houses of the Oireachtas?

It is important that the Statute Book is not only accessible to all citizens and practitioners in the area, but is also user friendly. We referred this time last year to the need to ensure that all of the Statute Book is available in electronic form, where everybody can see its contents. One of the great problems for legislators, particularly on this side of the House, is the manner in which existing principal Acts have been added to in an exponential way.

We will deal with the Social Welfare Bill next week, but this legislation is simply a consolidated piece of legislation which has its basis in the 1950s. Year on year we add or subtract portions from the principal Act. This habit makes it difficult for parliamentarians to see the exact amendments being made by the Government. It does not make the process user-friendly for the citizen who wishes to find out his or her entitlements according to the Statute Book. I would encourage the Minister of State to continue the work ongoing in the Office of the Attorney General of putting the Statute Book in an electronic format and making it as user-friendly as possible to ensure people can see with minimal action on a computer what is meant by the law after 1922.

From a political perspective, this legislation is a long time in the making. I would welcome the Minister of State commenting that this is part of an ongoing process, as the sooner we take away obsolete and irrelevant parts of our Statute Book which have no application in modern society, the better. That would be a good day for both Houses of the Oireachtas.