Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 170: To ask the Taoiseach if, in the context of better regulation, he will request all Ministers to produce a list of in-force legislation for which their respective Departments have responsibility; if each such list will be made available in a standardised form on the website of the relevant Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33268/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Office of the Attorney General is responsible for the maintenance of the electronic Irish Statute Book (www.irishstatutebook.ie). The eISB currently contains all Acts passed in the years 1922 to 2008 up to and including Act Number 12 of 2008 and all Statutory Instruments made since 1922, up to and including SI No. 350 of 2005. It also contains a link to pdf versions of Statutory Instruments that have been produced through the Electronic Statutory Instruments System which was introduced in 2007. The Office of the Attorney General is currently engaged in a process to update the eISB to include Acts 13 to 17 of 2008 by the end of October and Statutory Instruments made in the period between mid 2005 and 2008 by early 2009.

The Law Reform Commission has the task of updating the Legislation Directory (formerly the Chronological Tables) which is also part of the eISB and currently covers the years 1922 to 2005. The main purpose of the Directory is to document modifications made to primary legislation by subsequent legislation and it is therefore a very useful source of information on the current state of the law. The Commission published a consultation document on the Directory in July of this year in order to provide a focus for public discussion on how the Directory can best serve its users in terms of content provision and accessibility. The closing date for receipt of submissions to the Law Reform Commission is 23 October.

The Oireachtas website is another useful source of information on primary legislation and includes listings of all Acts passed by the Oireachtas since 1922 and all Bills introduced in the Oireachtas since 1997.

In addition to these overarching websites, some Departments already provide legislative information relating to their areas of responsibility on their individual websites. This approach increases the accessibility of legislation for citizens in line with the Government's commitments on Better Regulation. In this context, I will be asking all Ministers to ensure that, in line with best practice, legislation for which they have responsibility is listed on their Departmental websites in a transparent and consistent manner.