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

I thank the Senator not just for tabling these amendments but for engaging with us so collaboratively over the past week. As I stated on Committee Stage, both my Department and the Law Reform Commission believe that it is legally justifiable to include the 1685 order on the list for retention. However, we acknowledge the concerns that were raised in the House last week and as a result, and on foot of discussions in this House, officials in my Department have engaged with the Genealogical Society of Ireland to get a greater understanding of those concerns. During the public consultations that were carried out on two separate occasions, most recently in 2022, the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland stated that it relied on the 1685 order and that this order had never lapsed and, therefore, needed to be retained. Following our discussions on Committee Stage last week, the Law Reform Commission has now initiated further research and has sought to engage with the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland to investigate the matter further and to reconfirm its position on the order. The Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland is the statutory body responsible for this area and, therefore, I believe it is appropriate to go back to it with the concerns that have been raised and to seek legal certainty regarding the potential impact of revoking an order that it states it specifically relies on.

To reiterate, no objections were raised in respect of any of the proposed retentions or revocations during the public consultations in 2015 and 2022. For these reasons, I am suggesting that this issue be looked at in detail for possible consideration in the next statute law revision Bill, research for which is due to be completed by the end of this year. This will give the Law Reform Commission sufficient time to complete its research.It will also give the opportunity to obtain legal certainty regarding the order without posing any undue delay to the passage of this Bill and the important work of ensuring that the vast range of obsolete instruments are removed from the Irish Statute Book.

As the Senator noted, this is an extremely complex area and further investigation may well be warranted. On foot of the concerns raised by the Senator, and that have been raised with him, our position is that we will endeavour to look at those.