asked the Minister for Finance whether he is aware that considerable inconvenience is caused to legal practitioners by the delay, usually exceeding nine months, in publishing and issuing bound volumes of the Statutes passed in a particular year; and, if so, whether he will direct that these volumes be issued within three months after the end of each year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Delay in Publication of Statutes.
I should be glad to be in a position to undertake publication of the bound volumes of Statutes within three months after the end of each year, if it were possible to do so. There are, however, practical difficulties in the way of early publication:— (a) the translation of the single Acts; (b) the time taken to prepare material, including index and table of contents; (c) the impracticability of giving priority to the printing and binding of the volumes having regard to the pressure of other work. Legal practitioners should not, I think, be seriously inconvenienced by having to wait for the bound Statutes. The Acts are available as published, throughout the year, at a very reasonable subscription rate. A consolidated index to the Statutes for the years 1922-1948 has also been published.