It was provided by Article 73 of the Constitution that, subject to the Constitution and subject to the extent to which they were not affected thereby, the laws that were in force at the date on which the Constitution came into operation should be continued as of full force and effect, until they were repealed or amended by a specific enactment of the Oireachtas. When that was done, a body of laws was taken over in globo and we had to proceed, as we subsequently did, by the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922, to adapt these laws to the existing circumstances The Adaptation of Enactments Act was, I think, the first statute passed by the Oireachtas after the Constitution itself. By that Act we made certain specific adaptations of the British statutes which were taken over under Article 73, and it was provided that the Executive Council might, from time to time, by order make further general or specific adaptations or modifications of those statutes in order to enable them to have full force and effect in the Saorstát. The laws which were continued in force by Article 73 of the Constitution, included a great number of charters which had, from time to time, been granted in this country prior to the Treaty. Those charters were not adapted by the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922, nor did that Act confer on the Executive Council any power to adapt these charters by order. There are, as Deputies are aware, a considerable number of bodies such as hospitals, which are governed by charters. Some of these charters referred to Departments or functionaries of the late British Government in Ireland, and also to the holders of certain offices such as, for instance, the Lord Chancellorship, the Lord Chief Justiceship, and other such offices which have ceased to exist.
It has become apparent now to the Executive Council that certain adaptations must be made in order that these charters may work in the present circumstances of the country. Several applications have been made to the Executive Council with a view to having certain of those charters adapted. It has not been considered desirable to make a general adaptation of charters such as was made in the case of statutes by the Adaptation of Enactments Act. The present Bill by Section 1 confers on the Executive Council power to make all such adaptations of, or modifications in, any of these charters as are in the opinion of the Executive Council necessary to enable the charters to have full force and effect in Saorstát Eireann. The position, if and when this Bill is passed into law, will be that persons interested in any particular charter can apply to the Executive Council to have that charter adapted. This can be done without expense by the order of the Executive Council. Section 7 of the Act to which I have referred, the Adaptation of Enactments Act, deals with certain statutory boards of commissioners and other statutory bodies and it provides that the Executive Council may, by order, establish a board of commissioners to exercise in Saorstát Eireann functions previously exercised by any such statutory board of commissioners or other statutory body.
The terms "statutory board of commissioners" and "statutory body" are uncertain and lacking in precision. Some of the bodies which were intended to be comprised in the section are both constituted and governed by statute and no question can arise regarding any such body. There are, however, other bodies which were intended to be comprised in the section, some of which are constituted and governed by charter, and others of which are constituted by charter, and governed partly by statute and partly by charter, and yet others which are constituted by statute, governed partly by statute and partly by charter. The object of Section 2 of the Bill, at present under consideration, is to bring all such bodies within the purview of Section 7 of the Adaptation of Enactments Act. Section 9 of the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924, also deals with statutory boards of commissioners and other statutory bodies. Section 3 of this present Bill is intended to amplify and define the expression "statutory boards of commissioners" and "other statutory bodies" which are used in that section, in the same way as Section 2 defines these expressions for the purposes of the Adaptation of Enactments Act. I move that the Bill be read a second time.