Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

This section deals with evidence relating to the original statutes and, it is fair to say, many of those were lost in the fire in 1922. Could the Minister of State outline to the House how it was possible to verify the existence of these documents and statutes referred to in the various Schedules? In the section there is reference to the calendars of documents relating to various periods as a means of verifying their existence, but that was clearly not the position in all such cases. How was he able to establish one from the other where there was no documentary evidence of that Act?