Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their contributions. I can confirm that the Geological Survey Act is not impacted by this.

The Bill we have been considering today proposes the revocation of all statutory and prerogative instruments made before 1 January 1861, except for six instruments, which will be retained. More than 40,000 secondary instruments were reviewed by the Law Reform Commission to ascertain if they were obsolete or were to be repealed or retained.

This Bill is the seventh Statute Law Revision Bill in a programme the aim of which is to ensure that Ireland has a modern and accessible Statute Book. To date, the programme has produced the following:

the Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005, which repealed a selection of pre-1922 statutes; the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, which was a comprehensive revision of pre-1922 public general Acts; the Statute Law Revision Act 2009, which revised all private Acts up to and including 1750 and all local and personal Acts up to and including 1850; the Statute Law Revision Act 2012, which revised all private Acts from 1750 to 1922 and all local and personal Acts from 1850 to 1922; the Statute Law Revision Act 2015, which revoked secondary instruments made before 1 January 1821; and the Statue Law Revision Act 2016, which revoked spent and obsolete legislation enacted between 1922 and 1950.

Tidying up all the spent and obsolete secondary instruments made between 1 January 1821 and 1 January 1861 will contribute significantly towards improving the overall regulatory environment in Ireland. It will simplify and modernise our laws and make the Statute Book more intelligible. This will save time and costs for those who need to know what laws are in force and make it easier for the public to access justice. I thank Members for their involvement in this debate, and I look forward to the further engagement on Committee Stage in due course.