Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and I welcome this legislation. We all must welcome anything that makes life easier for the citizen or for the public when accessing legislation. I congratulate and thank the people in the Departments who have gone through all 297 Acts that are obsolete. It was a very tedious job to go through all of those pieces of legislation to see that they are not being enacted at the moment. The Minister of State referred to one particular Act that had been done away with in 2007, it had been brought to the attention of the Department, and it is now going to be restored to the Statute Book. I welcome this because it shows that the process does work. Perhaps the Minister of State could clarify when this was brought to the attention of the Department and how long it took to put it back in to focus. I understand it will not be put back until this legislation is passed but was there any hardship involved for the group that it affected? I presume there are no other pieces of legislation involved in this issue.

I welcome the Bill. It is great for those who are working in the courts and who work on legislation on a daily or weekly basis. The last time this was done it was one of the biggest pieces of revision of legislation in the world. I remember when that legislation was passed. It was very interesting and we went through many of the Acts that were being removed from the Statute Book at the time. It was greatly appreciated by those in the law business. More importantly it is to be welcomed for the citizens many of whom, especially people who are retired, go through legislation and they find it very interesting - even if it is not they who are affected - and this is going to make it much easier for them. When I go through some of the Acts that we are going to repeal with this legislation it is interesting to note that the opening and closing hours of shops and other trades in the Dublin district were covered by law. Any type of business can choose opening and closing times whenever they want now. There have been quite a lot of changes since 1922 and since 1950 with regard to many of those laws and with the advent of the Internet.

Some of those laws made provision for funding the telephone system in 1923. We now have a much more advanced world where the Internet is important to every household. In a short period of time life moves very quickly; from the basic telephone - which very few people had - at that time and the Government making a provision to set up telephone lines to today where we have Wi-Fi and very modern technology. It is unbelievable what can happen in a short time.

I note that in 1937 there was a repeal of legislation with regard to the Clerk of the Seanad. That piece of legislation, since this House received the confidence of the public, will not need to be used again.

I welcome the Bill and I wholeheartedly support it. It is in the interests of the law and of the public.