I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. One of the objects of the Statutory Instruments Act, 1947, is to ensure that reasonable publicity is given to the promulgation of statutory instruments. For this purpose Section 3 of the Act lays down certain requirements which apply to every statutory instrument not excluded or exempted from the provisions of the Act. These requirements may be summarised as follows:— (i) each statutory instrument must be printed under the superintendence of the Stationery Office; (ii) as soon as a statutory instrument is printed notice of its being made and of the place where copies may be obtained must be published in the Irish Oifigiúil, and (iii) as from the date of publication of the notice in Iris Oifigiúil copies of the instrument must be kept and made available at the place specified in the notice.
From the outset, difficulty has been experienced in securing prompt gazetting of statutory instruments in the Iris Oifigiúil. This difficulty arises from the provisions of Section 3 of the 1947 Act which, as already stated, prescribed that a statutory instrument must be printed before it can be gazetted. Despite the best endeavours of the Stationery Office delays frequently occur between the time an instrument is made and the time that printed copies of it are available. In consequence, the public may be without formal notice of the making of a statutory instrument for several weeks. Such a delay is undesirable and has been the subject of adverse comment by the Seanad Select Committee on Statutory Instruments.
A further defect in the existing procedure is to be found in the operation of sub-section (4) of Section 3 of the 1947 Act which prescribes that a statutory instrument having printed on it the statement that—in the words of the Act—"Notice of the making of the said statutory instrument was published in a particular issue of the Iris Oifigiúil shall in any proceedings be prima facie evidence that such notice was published in that issue of the Iris Oifigiúil.” This was intended to simplify proof of the gazetting of an instrument. However, by reason of the order of procedure prescribed in the Act it is quite impossible to ensure that the first printed copies of a statutory instrument contain a statement about the date of gazetting, since printed copies of the instrument must be available before gazetting can be arranged. This defect inconveniences not alone the State but also private individuals, who in seeking the enforcement of rights conferred by statutory instruments, may be put on proof of the gazetting of such instruments.
The Bill deals with these defects by permitting gazetting to be effected in advance of printing. Pending the production of prints, neostyled copies of statutory instruments will be made available to the public. The Bill extends also the list of institutions to which copies of statutory instruments are required to be furnished, by including the King's Inns Library. This merely adds to the statutory obligation that was enshrined in the original Act, and it merely puts into legislation a practice that was in operation, since the Act was passed, of giving the King's Inns Library a copy of each statute.
