I move amendment No. 1:
In page 3, before section 1, to insert the following new section:
1.—The statutes of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland mentioned in the Schedule to this Act are repealed.".
I thank the officials in the Department and in the Office of the Attorney General who carried out detailed work on this important legislation. Members of the research team involved are in the Visitors Gallery. The purpose of the legislation is to remove spent pre-1922 legislation from the Statute Book. I will briefly outline some of the changes we have made, although much work remains to be done.
The Statute Law Revision Bill, once enacted, will provide for the repeal of more than 200 Acts which pre-date the foundation of the State. These are statutes enacted before 6 December 1922, which are no longer in force and are considered to be spent, obsolete or no longer of practical utility. The Bill deals only with primary legislation from the years prior to independence and is mainly concerned with laws passed either by writ or by a number of parliaments that had authority over Ireland over a period of eight centuries.
The statutes covered by the Bill fall into the following categories: Irish statutes passed before the union with Britain — these are laws passed either by writ or by various parliaments sitting in Ireland between 1200 and 1800; English statutes passed before 1495 that were applied to Ireland — these mostly consist of laws passed by English Parliaments that were applied by virtue of Poyning's Law in 1495; English statutes passed between 1495 and 1707 that were applied to Ireland; British statutes which were applied to Ireland — these are statutes passed by Westminster Parliaments after the union of England and Scotland in 1707 but before the union of Britain and Ireland in 1800; and Acts of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, passed after the Act of Union in 1800 but before the establishment of Saorstat Éireann in 1922, which applied to Ireland.
Since the Bill was last debated, a number of new statutes suitable for repeal have been identified by the Office of the Attorney General and my amendments will include them in the already long list contained in the Schedule. I will propose several other minor changes to the text which will make for a more comprehensive and accurate Act.
On Second Stage, I was pleased to discover that there is broad support for the thrust of this legislation. We are engaged in an important exercise to remove legislation which pre-dates independence and leave in place only those laws made by the democratically elected Oireachtas. The complete updating of the Statute Book is, as the select committee will appreciate, a significant task that will be best accomplished through a phased programme of measures. This Bill is an important step in that programme and is part of the Government's wider commitment to better regulation and regulatory reform.
Amendment No. 1 seeks to delete the reference in section 1(1) to "Parliaments" and to remove the reference in section 1(2) to the "Statute of Winchester, observance in Ireland". The effect of this amendment is that the Statute of Winchester can now be listed in the Schedule alongside all the other Acts. I will table a further amendment to change the Schedule accordingly. The Statute of Winchester, in terms of its "observance in Ireland", is unusual in that it cannot properly be described as a statute of Parliament. As such, given the original reference in subsection (1) to "the enactments of former Parliaments", the statute could not be included in the Schedule and was, therefore, specified separately in the body of the Bill.
Historically, this type of instrument has been referred to by various terms, such as a writ or mandate, and the method known as extension by writ was used to apply to Ireland some of the important enactments of the reign of Edward I. The Statute of Winchester was the first example of this method, when it was sent "for observance in Ireland". In this case, the writ, reciting that the king was bound on oath to preserve peace in Ireland and commanding observance of "the statute lately published at Winchester, in all and singular its articles", was sent to this country.
Today, the words "Act" and "statute" are often used interchangeably and while legislation is regarded as being passed by a parliament, these categories were very much blurred in the early centuries of legislation. In truth, much of what is called legislation appears to have emanated from executive authority, without the involvement of anything which would be recognised as a parliament. As it is my intention to remove as many outdated laws as possible at this stage, I have asked the Office of the Attorney General to include anything that can reasonably be regarded as a statute in the Schedule to this Bill.
To be this comprehensive it is necessary to use a new formula in the Bill, whereby any reference to "parliaments" is deleted. In this way, we will be able to list in the Schedule laws, such as the Statute of Winchester, which do not follow the normal categorisation. This is a tidier, more uniform approach.
One final effect of this amendment is that the reference to "the United Kingdom" is expanded to "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". This change is made on the advice of the Office of the Attorney General because it is the more usual title for the political entity which existed between 1801 and 1922 and is used in the Acts of Union. It is also used in the definition of British statutes — UK statutes — in the Interpretation Acts of 1937 and 2005. Accordingly, I propose this change for both accuracy and consistency.
Amendment No. 2 replaces the existing Schedule with a new text. The effect of this amendment is threefold. First, it is necessary to take account of the changes made by my previous amendment. Accordingly, the reference to the Statute of Winchester, which was in section 1 of the Bill, will now be included in the new Schedule.
Second, the process of identifying legislation for repeal is continuing in the Office of the Attorney General and more information continues to come to light as the Bill passes through the Oireachtas. As Deputies will be aware, when the Bill was initiated late last year it provided for the repeal of 91 statutes. On Committee Stage in the Seanad, the Schedule was amended to include another 127 Acts, bringing the total number of Acts listed in the current text to 218. As a result of further research and consultation since then, it is now necessary to amend the Schedule one final time. The amendment will add another 16 Acts to the list and remove 28 Acts which, it now appears, may still have a modern application and may not be entirely obsolete.
The addition or deletion of statutes should not be viewed with any degree of suspicion. These changes arise because the additional background research and consultations have identified some doubts as to the modern application of these old statutes. It is prudent in this type of revision exercise to err on the side of caution and not repeal any Act where there is a doubt. I confirm at this stage that the decision to omit any particular Act from the Schedule to this Bill does not preclude the inclusion of that Act in a later statute law revision Bill once the examination and wider consultations are completed. While I am determined to have as comprehensive a Bill as possible now, I am also alert to the need for accuracy and certainty.
Third, the amendment corrects a small number of the citations and cross-headings in the Schedule. This is also required following the changes made in my first amendment. With the deletion of the reference to "Parliaments" in section 1, the dates in respect of the various pre-1707 statutes listed in Parts 1 and 2 become more open-ended. Therefore, references to the dates have been removed from the headings for Parts 1 and 2. In contrast, the dates for "Great Britain" and the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" have always been clearly identifiable, namely, 1707 to 1800 and 1801 to 1922, respectively. Consequently, no changes are made to the headings for Parts 3 and 4.
The result of these two amendments is that the Bill will now repeal 206 Acts. As to the purpose of each of the statutes, I refer Deputies to the list I have circulated, setting out brief details of all the legislation listed in the Schedule. Every single repeal not only reduces the areas of uncertainty in our Statute Book but also constitutes an important step towards the development of a definitive list of those statutes which really are in force and the effect of which is clear.
I hope I covered all the issues that may arise. As Deputies are aware, we debated the legislation on Second Stage. Its purpose is to remove some spent legislation, although we still have much work to do. I again express my appreciation of the work done on the legislation by the officials involved.