Lorraine Higgins (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for his very detailed and informative submission, which went through the various provisions of the Act. It is very good to hear other speakers refer to their relevance in current times. I thank Senators Norris and Byrne for that.

I welcome the opportunity to lead the debate on behalf of the Labour Party in the Seanad and to contribute to this important legislation. As legislators we have a tendency to add laws to the Statute Book, but rarely do we remove any. On that basis, I commend the Minister and his Department on this Bill. It is the most extensive statute law revision attempted anywhere. We can be very proud to have undertaken this course of action, as it marks us out as reformers in the true sense of the word. It is clear that a great job is being done in combing through the Statute Book for material that should no longer be there. I understand that throughout this process a number of Bills have already come through the Houses, and in total approximately 8,000 Acts have been identified for repeal. Together with these, some 40,557 Acts have automatically been repealed by the legislation.Along with the Office of the Attorney General, the Minister and his Department have outlined a purposeful project to review all legislation on our Statute Book and to repeal any legislation that is spent, obsolete and no longer of practical use. Having worked in law, I think I speak for most members of my profession in welcoming this development, because no longer will I have to worry about some ancient, archaic law coming up and biting me if I am working in a courtroom again sometime soon when trying to fight a case. More seriously, it will revoke just over 5,700 secondary instruments, which were assessed by the statute law revision project as spent or obsolete. It also amends the Statutory Instruments Act 1947 by removing the provisions that permit certain individual instruments and classes of instrument to be exempted from the publication requirements of section 3(1) of the Act of 1947, except, I understand, instruments made under specified sections of the Defence Act 1954 and the amendment Act of 1990.

As with earlier phases and other matters brought before the Seanad relating to statute law, this Bill has been widely canvassed and accompanied by a consultation process with the various Departments, local authorities and other relevant companies, bodies and organisations. Some of these laws date back to 1542. While some are completely obsolete, they have enjoyed the full force of law up to the present, notwithstanding their age and the fact that they were designed for a very different era. One might question why these laws survived our independence from the British crown. However, by virtue of an Act passed in 1922, many ancient laws were transposed into Irish law. While we might be thankful that time has moved on in legal terms, it will not really have done so until this Bill is passed.

The Bill contains a comprehensive list of the secondary instruments and statutory instruments to be repealed and those to be retained. For instance, some of the laws that have been scrapped in the past relate to the removal of the 700 year old obligation for every citizen of Ireland to own a bow and arrow and to practise archery. The Act concerned with locking people into stocks so that they could be pelted with tomatoes - I know a few I could put in there - is also to be repealed, as are the private divorce Acts, which are obsolete in light of thejudicial divorce Acts of 1996 and the statutes relating to conferring of citizenship on non-nationals, where Ministers have no power to confer naturalisation. This had to be done by Parliament.

While I have outlined only some of the Acts that have been consigned to history, this Bill will also specify those secondary instruments and statutory instruments that are to remain in effect. As well shedding light on Ireland's economic, social and political life, this constant renewal of legislation saves time and money. Our Parliament passes laws to deal with current circumstances and when these circumstances no longer apply, the legislation should cease to apply immediately. It is important that we remove legal deadwood from our Statute Book to facilitate a process of regulatory reform. A modern democracy like Ireland requires us to replace outdated and outmoded legislation with laws that are passed by the democratically elected representatives of the people. Obsolete laws have survived for too long because of the belief that they were not causing any harm. This is where people are wrong, however. Many of the archaic laws have frustrated the legal and judicial system and hampered its efficient operation because of the time legal practitioners were required to spend in the Law Library to determine the legal standing of a particular point. The Bill reflects the Government's agenda for better regulation. I thank everybody who has worked on this Bill and commend it to the House.