Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I know. They travelled on the great Esker which brought them around Clonmacnoise. The toll was taken to fund the improvement of that road. That is most interesting about Kinnegad and Athlone. It is ironic that nearly 300 years later we are still putting tolls on the modern motorway between these two towns.

Certain kinds of Acts will not be affected by the Statute Law Revision Bill. These are private Acts by which a person may have set up a charitable trust for a particular purpose, such as education or to deal with indigence or for health purposes. An example of such an Act is the private Act of 1761 which incorporated Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath. This Act was looked at in detail by the Pre-lndependence Project because the school itself contacted the project to ensure that the Act would not be repealed. I know the school well and it is a fine school in Multyfarnham. It must be subject to trust funding or something of that nature which, if the Act was repealed, would cut it off from the trust. The school still plays as important a role in the community of Multyfarnham as it did 250 years ago and the present Statute Law Revision Bill will do nothing to interfere with the founding Act.

The Minister of State and all who work with him have embarked on a long odyssey. It is necessary in a modern democracy that the project is open and transparent. I was interested to hear that hundreds of people contacted the website when the Attorney General listed it. Of course people are interested because we are all subject to law. The project is time consuming and might perhaps be tedious from time to time, although I would not think so because laws were made by people for people. We give people greater access to modern laws which are created in full consultation which is also interesting. I hope the modern road from Athlone to Kinnegad will be completed quickly and the tolls continue to be paid.