Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to introduce the Statute Law Revision Bill 2009 to this House, it having already had the benefit of an interesting debate in the Dáil.

This Bill is being brought forward within the context of broader work on better regulation in Ireland as articulated in the 2004 White Paper, Regulating Better. At the centre of the better regulation programme is the belief that both the flow of new legislation and the stock of existing legislation must be addressed. The Statute Law Revision Bill 2009 addresses the stock of legislation on the Statute Book and seeks to repeal all local and personal Acts prior to 1851 and private Acts prior to 1751, which have become obsolete or spent. It is a key element of the statute law revision programme which has been established in the Office of the Attorney General under the ambit of the Department of the Taoiseach, to remove obsolete legislation from the Statute Book, reducing regulatory burden on both business and the citizen and moving towards the modernisation of Irish law.

The term "Statute Book" is neither a technical nor a legal term but simply refers to all primary legislation, such as statutes or Acts, as they may be called, and secondary legislation, such as orders, regulations, rules, schemes and by-laws, that have not been repealed or revoked. In terms of primary legislation, there are three categories, namely, public general Acts, which were dealt with by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, and local and personal Acts and private Acts, which form the subject matter of the present Bill. In respect of all three categories, much material remains on the Statute Book merely because of inertia. While the Acts may contain a wealth of historical information, they have long since served their intended purpose and have become obsolete. However, until express removal, the obsolete Act retains its place on the Statute Book.

There are a number of reasons it is wholly undesirable for such obsolete pre-1922 legislation to remain on the Statute Book. First, it is misleading for users who may believe by virtue of an Act simply remaining on the Statute Book that it retains some modern effect or relevance. At present, for a user of the Statute Book to determine whether a statute may be of relevance, they may be obliged to undertake the time-consuming task of carefully analysing a statute only to come to the conclusion that it is obsolete or spent. Accordingly, the removal of legislation which has lost any practical utility or is obsolete provides valuable assistance in modernising the Statute Book and renders it clearer, shorter and more accessible for all users and facilitates the process of regulatory reform. Second, this initiative is an expression of this country's independent, democratic outlook. It is not appropriate that laws from the pre-independence era should remain in force here indefinitely. This Bill is a further step in a process which ultimately will see pre-independence legislation removed from the Statute Book.

The Statute Law Revision Bill 2009 is the third Bill brought forward in the current phase of statute law revision. The Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005, which repealed 207 Acts, was the first such measure and paved the way for the Statute Law Revision Act 2007. As Members will recall, that Bill, which expressly repealed more than 3,000 statutes, was the largest repealing Act applying in Ireland either before or after independence and was one of the most innovative pieces of legislation to be enacted in recent years. It has brought clarity for the first time regarding the public general Acts enacted prior to independence, by listing all public general Acts in Schedule 1 that were not repealed. This central feature of a scheduled "white list" of Acts which were not repealed has again been adopted in the present Bill.

The Statute Law Revision Bill 2009 is the third Bill brought forward in the current phase of statute law revision and deals with private Acts enacted prior to 1751 and local and personal Acts enacted prior to 1851. While the 2007 Act dealt with public and general Acts, a large number of local and personal Acts and private Acts remain on the Statute Book. This is part of the general body of statute law, which was enacted by various different Parliaments legislating for Ireland prior to 1922. These include Anglo-Irish Parliaments and English and British Parliaments, legislating for the whole of Ireland prior to 1800, and United Kingdom Parliaments legislating for Ireland and Britain after the Act of Union of 1800. These Acts continued in force by virtue of Article 73 of the Constitution of Saorstát Éireann and Article 50 of the Constitution of Ireland. The 2009 Bill will do for private Acts enacted before 1751 and for local and personal Acts enacted before 1851, what the 2007 Act did for the public general Acts enacted before independence.

Private Acts are those which are concerned with the affairs of a single individual or body. They are enacted under a different procedure entirely from that for public and general Acts. The private Acts listed in the Bill include many naturalisations, denizations, approvals of marriage settlements and divorces. The Bill contains a number of private Acts enacted by the Irish Parliament between 1534 and 1750. Unfortunately the original texts for these Acts did not survive the destruction of the Public Records Office in 1922. Extensive efforts have been made to track down copies of the texts of these Acts but despite that, it has become apparent that for a number of them, no text remains in existence in any form. Records of the subject matter of many of those private Irish Acts indicate they are now spent or obsolete. However, because of section 27 of the Interpretation Act 2005, any rights, privileges or obligations etc. that there might be under those Acts would be saved when those Acts are repealed. Consequently, it is proposed to repeal those private Irish Acts up to 1750 for which no surviving copy can be traced.

Local and personal Acts are concerned with matters affecting a very limited section of the community such as a single local authority, local area or company. Local and personal Acts were published in a separate series between 1797 and 1922. Prior to the enactment of company registration law in 1844 and of limited liability for companies in 1855, most commercial companies were incorporated by an Act of Parliament.

The statute law revision project under the ambit of the Office of the Attorney General embarked on a process of extensive analysis, research and consultation prior to publication of this Bill. While local and personal Acts and private Acts are not of general applicability as the public general Acts are, they still require careful analysis to identify those with ongoing relevance. There are 3,182 pre-1750 private Acts, including 175 private Irish Acts, and 7,543 pre-1850 local and personal Acts making a total of 10,725 Acts potentially coming within its scope. Of these, 8,957 Acts were assessed as not being applicable to Ireland. Of the applicable Acts, 139 have been identified as being not suitable for repeal as they contain provisions which may have ongoing relevance. The remaining 1,347 Acts have been assessed as suitable for repeal on the basis that they are spent or obsolete. As with the pre-1922 public and general Acts dealt with by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, it is intended that the private Acts and local and personal Acts that did not apply to Ireland will be implicitly repealed by their not being saved and referred to in Schedule 1 to the Bill.

Each of the 10,725 Acts within the scope of this Bill were individually assessed, first, except for the Irish Acts, in respect their applicability to Ireland, second, as to whether they had already been repealed and finally those that were deemed applicable to Ireland and unrepealed were analysed with regard to their suitability for repeal. An Act was deemed to apply if it had a tangible connection to Ireland. As a result of this cautious approach, some Acts appear in the Bill which, on a reading of their Short Title or subject matter alone, do not appear relevant to Ireland. These Acts were deemed to be applicable if they contained provisions relating to Ireland. For example, some Acts applied to Irish ships, to all ports in the United Kingdom or contain a provision which allows the Act to be enforced in the Irish courts of the time.

Other Acts related to the status of persons who were formerly foreigners and concerned denizations and naturalisations which would have been automatically recognised and applicable in Ireland. After the initial assessment was made, there was detailed consultation with all Government Departments and relevant State agencies, semi-State bodies and local authorities. Each Department was given the opportunity specifically to approve or reject the repeal of an Act or statute listed for repeal. In addition, public notices were placed on the website of the Office of the Attorney General and in a number of newspapers. The complete list of the Short Titles or subject matter of all pre-independence private Acts and local and personal Acts is also available on that website.

At all times, a cautious approach was taken in regard to the decision as to whether an Act was suitable for repeal or not. Acts are only listed for repeal where they are wholly obsolete or spent. If it became apparent that any of the provisions of an Act may have some ongoing relevance or effect, the Act has been retained for the present. Among the Acts retained by this Bill are Acts relating to Maynooth College, certain harbours and ports, various railways and a number of specific hospitals. As I have already indicated, Irish private Acts for which no copy can be found are proposed for repeal but this will not affect the saving provisions for rights, privileges and obligations etc. contained in section 27 of the Interpretation Act 2005.

For the benefit of the young students in the Gallery, if they have time it would be an interesting exercise to go through the fascinating document which is available on the website of the Attorney General. If they want to talk to the person who did a lot of work, Mr. Richard Humphreys, is sitting beside them in the Gallery.