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Number of laws identified as already repealed/ disenabled

Number of laws repealed by each Act Of the total laws repealed, number of express repeals Of the total laws repealed, number of implied repeals Number of laws retained by each Act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  • Of the 2341 laws retained by the Statute Law Revision Acts, approximately 10% have subsequently been repealed in subject matter specific legislation.