Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 2 and 4 are regarding Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Bill. These are technical amendments which remove the instrument known as Smuggling Order 1807 from Schedule 1 of the Statute Law Revision Bill 2024, instruments to be retained. The purpose of this order was to allow for the payment of rewards to soldiers who assisted customs officers in making any seizures of prohibited or uncustomed goods during the Napoleonic Wars.

This instrument was originally retained in statute law when we revised it in 2015, and following the Second Stage debate, the Law Reform Commission carried out further research on the appropriateness of including the order in Schedule 1 of the Bill. The Law Reform Commission has now recommended that the order be removed from Schedule 1 and instead be included in Schedule 2, which is the list of instruments to be revoked that Senator Boyhan spoke about. It is a technical amendment. It does not fundamentally change the Bill in any way and is not an amendment to policy. Following on from this amendment, our position is that Smuggling Order 1807 should be included in Schedule 2, instruments to be revoked.