Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

Seldom will a piece of legislation come before the House that will have so much support and lack of objection from the Fianna Fáil benches, either technically, politically or otherwise. There is no cause for such objection. We wholeheartedly support this revision, consolidation and repeal of certain obsolete pieces of legislation. I searched the Schedule for an example of some of the Acts we are repealing. With regard to 1779-80, the time of King George III, the Bill refers to "Enabling William Sherlock, Esquire, to make leases, and to charge portions for his younger children, and for other purposes". Such an item is a clear example of matters that should not trouble us any longer in this State.

It is amazing that, when this Bill is enacted, the total number of repeals will rise to almost 8,000, together with an additional 40,557 Acts which were deemed inapplicable or implicitly repealed by the legislation - an astonishing statistic. While it is probably an academic exercise, as the Minister of State pointed out, great research and painstaking work was put in by the officials, and the Minister also thanked the House of Lords and the archives service at Westminster, which it is important to acknowledge.

I come from the old school of law. When I was studying law initially in UCC so many years ago that I would hate to put the year on record in case I would be seen to be older than I look-----