Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I thank colleagues on all sides of the House for their helpful contributions to what was a particularly useful Second Stage debate. The range of experience in this House was of great benefit in accommodating the passage of the Bill. It is only when one goes through the list of Acts and Private Bills, retained and repealed, as set out in Schedules 1 and 2, that one can appreciate the amount of work done and the time and resources involved. Each item of legislation set out in the Schedules, those we are retaining and repealing, required a detailed forensic analysis of whether it had merit today, had prescribed rights and so on. It is only when one sees all of the Acts together that one gets a sense of the colossal amount of work that has been done within the various Departments. As I said on Second Stage, this work is ongoing. After this part of the work, as represented by the Bill, has been brought to Dáil Éireann for ratification, we will move on.

Members rightly observed last week that a great body of work remained to be done in ascertaining the relevance and applicability of legislation implemented after independence. I very much take the point that in any regulatory environment legislators have a responsibility, in the first instance, to create good law that is straightforward and easy to understand.

They also have a responsibility to codify the law and make sure it is in a standard format in order that every citizen and practitioner, whether legal or non-legal, can understand the position on any aspect of Irish life. This revision lends itself to Ireland improving its position in the world because we are standardising many legislative provisions that have become obsolete and irrelevant in modern Irish life. I am indebted to the House for once again showing its worth and highlighting the strong cross-party expertise applied when Bills of this nature are discussed.