Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 15 Nov 1950

Vol. 123 No. 5

Local Government (Repeal of Enactments) Bill, 1949.—Second and Subsequent Stages.

Minister for Local Government (Mr. Keyes)

I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The purpose of this Bill, as its Long Title states, is "to repeal expressly certain enactments or parts of enactments relating to local authorities which may be regarded as spent or which have ceased to be in force otherwise than by express repeal or which have, by lapse of time or otherwise, become unnecessary".

The enactments which it is proposed to repeal in whole or in part are listed in the Schedule to the Bill, the extent of the repeal being indicated in each case. More than 70 enactments are affected ranging from the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1816, to the Local Government Act of 1946. The reasons for repeal in each case are set out briefly in the explanatory memorandum which has been circulated to Deputies.

As Deputies will appreciate, the many changes which have taken place in local government since 1816 have made many existing statutory provisions unnecessary or obsolete. Such provisions, however, remain on the Statute Book until they are expressly repealed. In addition, enactments sometimes contain transitory provisions whose application is confined to a limited period, and which are spent when this period expires.

I wish to emphasise that this Bill introduces no new legislative principle. It will make no change whatever in the existing law relating to local authorities. Its purpose is merely to clear away obsolete provisions of the local government code. The retention of these obsolete provisions creates confusion in the minds of persons studying or administering local government law.

A special committee of Seanad Éireann considered this Bill and meticulously examined every item on the Schedule. As a result of that examination, a number of amendments were made in the Schedule to the Bill as introduced. I can assure the House that no provision which is not clearly spent, obsolete or unnecessary is being repealed.

Apart from its immediate and obvious intention, there is a more farreaching purpose behind this Bill. It constitutes the first step towards the simplification and modernisation of local government law. The next step will be the preparation of a Statute Law Revision Bill, and finally a Consolidation Bill to bring up to date the legislation dealing with local government. This is a large and difficult task, but I think Deputies will agree that it will be a welcome reform, and one which is long overdue. As I informed the House in the course of the debate on the Estimate for my Department in July, a text-book on local government law has been prepared and would already have been published only that certain amendments may be necessary therein in view of the provisions of the Local Government (County Administration) Bill, 1950, which is at present before the House.

I think Deputies will welcome this Bill for what it will immediately achieve and even more because it is intended to lead to the eventual simplification of the existing complicated code of law relating to local authorities and their administration. I accordingly commend it to the House.

Mr. Derrig

I understand that this Bill has been in preparation for a considerable time. The Minister has explained that it has been scrutinised carefully in the Seanad and in his Department and follows a line that is generally accepted. It had already, to some extent, been worked upon before he occupied his present position. Therefore, there is no objection from this side of the House. I do not think we need go into the details, as we have the Minister's assurance that no change is made in the law, the general effect of the Bill being to remove deadwood legislation and obsolete sections and enactments. We have no objection to the Second Reading.

Captain Cowan

The House welcomes any effort to remove this deadwood out of legislation. This Bill certainly eliminates a considerable amount of that deadwood. The difficulty about local government law and nearly all our codes of law is that for the last 28 years we have been passing legislation and amending legislation and the Minister tells us now that there was a text-book on local government law ready, but even before it sees the printers it has to be amended. It is natural, in the changing circumstances, and particularly in administrative law, that that should happen; but one of the great difficulties that confronts anyone who endeavours to make himself familiar with local government law— and this is a matter of great importance not only to lawyers but to those who have to administer the local government law—is the difficulty of knowing exactly what the law is. It certainly is an eye-opener to Deputies that there should be such a jungle of legislation as is shown by this Bill.

There are many matters in connection with local government law which could undoubtedly be brought up to date and put in one volume—in fact, in one statute. I am afraid it is just expressing a pious hope to say that that should be done. The Minister may have the best intentions in the world to do that—and other Ministers with similar problems may feel likewise —but unfortunately these things are placed on the long finger and now, 28 years after the establishment of the State, nobody knows just exactly where we are, not only in regard to local government law but in regard to other law. The House will have no difficulty in approving any suggestions the Minister might make for tackling this big job of codification of local government law. There has been a tendency in local government law over a long period to bring in simply enabling legislation—legislation which permitted or authorised a Minister to make regulations dealing with small matters in local government administration—but I can see no reason why the broad general lines of local government administration cannot be contained in one statute.

Even reading through the Bill, which is going through at the moment, dealing with county management, I see quite a number of matters in that Bill that I do not think ought to appear in legislation at all, matters in connection with procedure at meetings, the signing of orders and things of that nature. If we could get the legislation that has stood over a long period of time collected into one omnibus statute, that would simplify many problems for quite a number of people. It is part of the difficulty of the administration of the whole local government code that an official entering the Department of Local Government may spend 40 years there before he discovers what code of law he is administering and, possibly, he may find at the end of that 40 years that he has been entirely wrong on some matters. This problem is both a serious and an important one, and I think the Minister should take some practical steps to solve it by setting up a whole-time committee to deal with the matter. Certainly an omnibus statute would be of tremendous assistance to those who have anything to do with local administration. It would also be of immense value to officials anxious to familiarise themselves with their duties and to perform their duties efficiently.

Like Deputy Derrig, I am glad to see a Bill of this kind introduced for the purpose of disposing of so much lumber, but I think we could do with a little more tidying-up and with a little more rebuilding of the whole code of local government law. I avail of this opportunity to give expression to that view.

Mr. Keyes

I can assure Deputy Cowan that the points to which he has adverted have gone beyond a pious hope and that practical steps are being taken to implement, with the least possible delay, the suggestions made. Two Bills will be prepared almost immediately, but it was essential, in the first instance, to clear away the deadwood in order to get on with codification and consolidation. That codification and consolidation will be given effect to with the greatest possible speed. The text-book is actually ready, but it was considered desirable to hold it up in order to obviate the necessity of going back again on some further contradiction. That book will issue immediately after the passage of the Local Government (County Administration) Bill. The other measures will be proceeded with as speedily as possible for the purpose of consolidating and codifying the existing law which makes it difficult at the moment for those dealing with it either administratively or in its legal aspect.

Question put and agreed to.

Agreed to take the remaining stages to-day.

Bill passed through Committee without amendment, reported, received for final consideration and passed.