Minister of State Mr Simon Harris T.D. today (9 July 2015) welcomed the passage of the Statute Law Revision Bill 2015, which having now completed its passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas, will go to the President for signature.
This Bill revokes 5782 pre-independence Government Proclamations, Directions and Orders made prior to 1821. It is the culmination of an extensive review of secondary legislation by the Statute Law Revision Programme and it is the largest repealing measure in the history of the State in terms of express repeal of obsolete laws.
Speaking on the importance of the statute law revision process, Minister Harris stated that:
“As legislators and custodians of the statute book, we should see our obligations as extending beyond the creation of new legislation to also include the review and removal of that which is no longer necessary”.
The Bill is the fifth Statute Law Revision Bill produced by the Statute Law Revision Programme which has to date seen the review of 72,000 laws and the repeal of over 60,000.
Highlighting the intention to continue this process of legislative reform, Minister Harris stated that:
“This is clearly not the end of the process but it constitutes a further milestone in the creation of a modern and accessible statute book and paves the way for further modernisation measures and assessment of more recent legislation.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors
The total number of laws reviewed by the Statute Law Revision Programme is as follows:
| Statute Law Revision Act/Bill: | Number of laws assessed |
Number of laws identified as already repealed/ disenabled |
Number of laws repealed by each Act | Of the total laws repealed, number of express repeals | Of the total laws repealed, number of implied repeals | Number of laws retained by each Act |
| 2005 | 207 | 0 | 207 | 207 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007 | 26191 | 9041 | 15786 | 3224 | 12562 | 1364 |
| 2009 | 10725 | 270 | 10317 | 1351 | 8966 | 138 |
| 2012 | 22885 | 153 | 21936 | 2983 | 18953 | 796 |
| 2015 | 12841 | 413 | 12385 | 5782 | 6603 | 43 |
| Total | 72849 | 9877 | 60631 | 13547 | 47084 | 2341 |
- Of the 2341 laws retained by the Statute Law Revision Acts, approximately 10% have subsequently been repealed in subject matter specific legislation.

