asked the Minister for Finance the average length of time that passes between the passing of Bills by both Houses of the Oireachtas and the printing and publication for sale of copies of the relevant Acts; and if he will take steps to shorten the interval.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Acts of the Oireachtas: Printing, Binding and Sale.
9.
Mr. Ryan
Where it is expected that there will be an urgent public demand for an Act, copies of the English version are placed on sale within about a week from the passing of the Bill. In all other cases, the Act is placed on sale in bilingual form, the translation into Irish and printing necessarily take some time.
For Acts passed and published since 1st January, 1958, the average period that elapsed between the passing of the Bills and their being placed on sale was about 5 months. Every effort is made and will continue to be made, to have the Acts on sale as quickly as possible.
10.
Mr. Ryan
asked the Minister for Finance if in view of the inconvenience caused by the delay in issuing the Statutes of the Oireachtas in bound volumes, he will expedite the binding of Acts in future and ensure that bound volumes of one year's Acts are available not later than June of the following year.
The present arrangements are being reviewed for the purpose of securing, if possible, a more expeditious issue of the bound volumes of statutes. Because of the time involved in translation and printing of the Acts, issue by June of the following year does not seem, at this stage, to be practicable.