asked the Taoiseach if he will bring in a Bill to amend the Interpretation Act, 1937, so that the exclusively male terms "he", "him" and "his" cease to be used in legislation and are replaced by terms applicable to both sexes.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Legislative Terminology.
9.
The Government's policy is to make statutes as comprehensible to the lay person as possible, since everyone has the right to know exactly what is the law.
In these circumstances, pronouns such as "he" or "she" or "him" or "her" are used in drafting statutes and statutory instruments for the purpose of brevity, simplicity, style and readability. In some legislation the use of one or other is necessary, such as in the Social Welfare Acts, dealing with women's allowances, and the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act, 1974, where the words "she" and "her" are used. The constant repetition of the noun which they replace — for example, "the person", "the Collector-General", "the respondent"— in sections which may already be long and complicated, would make the text even more difficult, especially for members of the public.
I am, however, sympathetic to the Deputy's concern and I have asked the Attorney General to ensure that, where possible, words importing both genders will be used in the drafting of Bills.
Surely the Taoiseach will agree that the public are sufficiently sophisticated to distinguish between he and she if those terms are used interchangeably in legislation. Would he not agree that it is anomalous that in legislation like the Employment Equality Act, the word "he" is used repeatedly when in reality the legislation was primarily designed to give employment equality to women? Would he confirm that proposals were made to Government in 1986 to amend the Interpretation Act, that the work has actually been done in his Department and that it would now simply be a matter of political decision to bring such legislation before the House?
I could not possibly answer for any of those mysterious and weird things that happened in 1986. The Deputy will be aware that this matter is governed by the Interpretation Act, 1937. There is a clause in that Act which says that every word importing the masculine gender shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as if it also imported the feminine gender. As the Deputy is probably aware, the ways of the parliamentary draftsmen are usually pretty obscure to the rest of us.
I am sure the Taoiseach is aware that in the same Act, where it deals with the question of the singular and plural and says that singular shall mean plural the converse applies, but where it says "he" shall mean "she" the converse does not apply. Would the Taoiseach not agree that in this day and age this kind of antiquated, sexist terminology should be eliminated and that we are very much out of line with other English speaking countries which in recent years have amended similar legislation to correct this anomaly?
As I have said, I propose to discuss the matter with the Attorney General. The 1937 Act has stood the test of time but maybe the time has come to look at it again.