State continues public consultation to 'tidy up the statute book'

The State is seeking the views of interested parties on the repeal of legislation dating from 1801 to 1922 as part of its exercise to "tidy up the statute book" and remove obsolete or redundant legislation enacted before the foundation of the State.

The process began with legislation dating from 1200, and 206 Acts have so far been repealed. Once all consultations are complete the Government plans to publish a Bill in December that would repeal all remaining pre-1922 Acts.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told Opposition leaders yesterday that this year some 70 submissions were received in a public consultation on the repeal of 2,000 Acts from before 1801. The office of the Attorney General was considering those submissions.

"In the light of the progress made since the public consultation the Government agreed to widen the scope of the repeal process to include Acts made since 1801. Accordingly, a new consultation phase to cover Acts made in the period from 1801 to December 6th, 1922, was advertised last week and is now under way.

"Once these latest consultations are complete the Government will introduce a statute law revision Bill to repeal all remaining pre-1922 legislation from the period 1200 to 1922 which has been found to be redundant or obsolete. It is intended to publish this new Bill by Christmas."

Mr Ahern said that some hundreds of old Acts remained in place. "We are almost there on the 1922 period. We must now review the old Acts and get rid of those that do not need to be there."

He added that the Law Reform Commission intended to set up a specific unit to consolidate more legislation.