Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think I also spoke on the previous Bill we had on statute law revision. It is a fantastic piece of work and I compliment all involved because it obviously took hours, months and years to compile all these laws and to bring them before us. It is a picture of history over centuries and it is certainly worth looking at. It deals with spent and obsolete laws, but it is a fantastic mirror of many things that happened in the past.

I will choose a few of them that are of historical interest. There is mention of the licence to Robert Gore to use the name and arms of Booth. We have heard a great deal of the Gore-Booths, regarding property and so on, in recent years. Another order settles the currency in Ireland and brings it to the same value as the coin in England. I am sure that could be the subject of many debates over a pint or two. There is also a proclamation in 1601 renewing the offer of a reward for the capture and death of the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill. What kind of connotations does that have in Irish history and the historical facts we were taught in primary school? From a Waterford point of view, there is a proclamation from 1639 for glass-making, which was very prominent in my city. Another declaration orders the removal of Irish papist proprietors with their wives, children and families from Leinster, Munster and Ulster to Connacht, dating from 1654. When we look again at the plantations and so on, it is all a very significant part of Irish history. In 1679 an order was made forbidding tobacco growing in Ireland. I am sure that if Senator Crown were here, he would be suggesting that rather than growing it, we should have banned it back in 1654. Another significant part of Irish history is an order made in 1689, before the battle of the Boyne in 1690, offering payment to Schomberg's soldiers to enlist in the Jacobite army. How much a part of Irish history was that? It continues to be a very important part of Irish history, north and south. A proclamation from 1374 concerns free access to victuals in Waterford. That is going back a long way. The Minister of State himself pointed out to me a proclamation from 1607 concerning the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell. We all know of the flight of the earls.

There is so much entwined in this about the history of Ireland. It is a very important piece of work and I compliment everybody involved in repealing up to 6,000 statutory and secondary instruments. I compliment everyone involved and I commend the Bill to the House.