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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 9 Feb 1999

Vol. 500 No. 1

Ceisteanna–Questions. - Publication of Statutes.

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

13 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach when the next phase of Irish statutes produced in CD-ROM format will be published; what it will include; the number which will be produced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1261/99]

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

14 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the number of copies of the Irish statutes produced in CD-ROM format, when they were published; the cost of the contract; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1262/99]

John Bruton

Ceist:

15 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach the reason a batch of CDs of the Irish statutes, issued between 17 and 31 December 1998, have had to be recalled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3667/99]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 to 15, inclusive, together.

The agreed contract for the publication of the entire Statute Book provided for the production and delivery of 1000 CDs. This was on the basis of a single release which would include Acts and statutory instruments. In the event 100 copies of a CD containing Acts only were released on 17 December 1998. A further 500 copies were ordered shortly afterwards and have been received. This first release was also made available on the Internet. The second release under the original contract of 400 disks containing Acts, statutory instruments and the chronological tables, 1922-98, will be available in May.

However over and above this, 800 further disks, containing Acts only, will be received on 15 February. In addition, the Incorporated Law Society has ordered 2,000 copies of this disk. This will bring the total number of disks containing Acts only produced to 3,400. The total cost of the contract to make the Statute Book available in electronic form is £825,000.

In January, the Office of the Attorney General became aware of a fault in the batch of CDs sold between 17 and 31 December. Pages of text from 11 Acts had not been included on the CD-ROM. This fault was rectified on the second batch of disks received. A notice, offering an exchange for the faulty disk, was placed in the newspapers on 4 February. Before the first batch had gone on sale the contractor had assured the Office of the Attorney General that the disks were free of any major fault. The Office of the Attorney General has asked the contractor to explain the cause of the fault and has insisted that improved quality assurance measures be put in place.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. He will be aware that I raised this matter before. Why was the ordering so botched in that only 100 copies were released before Christmas? Why was no realistic market research done and why could the demand not be met, given that it was out before Christmas? If it costs £825,000, why was the ludicrously low price of £20 set for the CD-ROM when the market would have borne a much higher price, such as £100? It would cost an arm and a leg to buy bound volumes of Irish statute law from 1922 to 1997. Did anyone in the Government Information Service and the Attorney General's office ask the information society body, to which the Taoiseach referred earlier in questions, about this? It seems a good idea, which originated with the previous Attorney General, has been grossly mismanaged by the present Administration.

It is not a question of mismanagement. This has proved to be extremely popular and useful and the demand has been higher than at first anticipated. When this idea was first mooted, people thought that approximately 500 people might have an interest in just one part of it.

That is nonsense. They did not talk to the people in solicitors' offices. It is ludicrous to be able to get the information for £20.

That is happening. As regards the £20 charge, the decision was made at the outset that it would be put on the Internet, so it would cost nothing.

A basic income for solicitors.

It is available to everyone so there is no point in charging £200.

Put it on the Internet and let everyone read it. It is the people's law, not lawyers' law.

That is being done.

People want to know without getting a highly paid person to tell them.

Some 100 copies went on sale in the Government Publications Sale Office in December. At the same time the Statute Book was made available on the Internet. A further 500 copies were printed in January and another 800 copies will be available on 15 February. The second phase of the project will be in May this year when further copies of the Statute Book will be released. The only error was that 11 parts of the Acts were released without being checked conclusively. There are 42,000 pages on each, but the checking device on the earlier ones was not as good as it should have been.

Can the Taoiseach confirm that all statutory instruments associated with legislation post 1922 will be available in May and that sufficient copies will be printed so that demand can be met? Can he indicate when legislation of relevance prior to 1922 will be produced in a similar format?

The answer to the first question is yes. The pre-1922 legislation is being looked at and they are also looking at how to update legislation from 1998 and 1999. It will be a couple of months before they work out precisely how to handle it.

I compliment the Taoiseach, the Attorney General and whoever else was involved in the decision to put this information on the Internet so that every citizen of this country and a foreign country can have access to our law on any topic. I acknowledge, as Deputy Quinn has done, the work of the previous Attorney General in starting this project. Without his interest in information technology as a lawyer, this project would not have been initiated as soon as it was.

Not to mention converting the Deputy, who is now a technician.

I do not believe Matt Russell would have initiated it.

Indeed I am. I must send you an e-mail some time. Does the Taoiseach expect people to pay £20 for a CD ROM when they can get the information free on the Internet?

Deputy Quinn is probably right that it is a handy means of accessing the information. While the initial expectation of demand was just a few hundred, 3,400 have sought it and solicitors believe it is very convenient. As a matter of interest the CD-ROM will comprise all the Acts and Statutes enacted by the Oireachtas from 1922-98, which runs to 42,000 pages and occupies five metres of shelf space. The conversion of the Statute Book to electronic form will allow the laws of the State to be stored on a single standard size CD ROM disk, portable and instantly searchable by modern electronic search techniques.

It was not clear from the Taoiseach's reply whether somebody is working on identifying the pre-1922 legislation that is in current use and relevant – obviously a great deal of it is redundant – and whether this is part of a new contract, as it was not part of the original contract. Should the Taoiseach not have the information, will he check it out and come back to us on it, as this is the next phase of the modernisation process?

The matter is being looked at and they are trying to identify the relevant legislation before they consider a contract.

Can we not just unilaterally repeal them?

At one stroke?

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