Act to remove 3,000 obsolete legal instruments
A law enacted last week will remove more than 3,000 obsolete legal instruments from the statute book.
The Government has described the Statute Law Revision Act 2024 (SLRB 2024) as “the latest in a long series of legislative measures aimed at improving the accessibility, clarity, and relevance of Ireland’s statute book”.
The act, which joins six previous revision acts, forms part of an initiative to identify and repeal obsolete legislation, both primary and secondary.
It passed the final stage in the Dáil on 9 July and was signed into law by the President on 25 July.
Act covers 1821 to 1861
The main purpose of the legislation is to repeal obsolete secondary instruments enacted on or after 1 January 1821 and before 1 January 1861.
It also repeals all secondary legislation enacted before 1 January 1821 that remains technically in force but is no longer relevant, and which was not already repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 2015.
The instruments were reviewed in a public consultation led by the Law Reform Commission and are listed in two schedules: schedule 1 lists the instruments to be retained, while schedule 2 lists the instruments to be repealed.
‘Snapshot of history’
The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation said that many of the repealed instruments offered “remarkable insight” into the social and administrative fabric of earlier times.
Among the more than 3,000 instruments to be repealed are over 2,500 proclamations offering rewards for the apprehension of suspected criminals.
These include specific proclamations addressing several distinctive forms of criminal activity such as:
- Breaking eggs,
- Burning cowsheds and outhouses,
- Beating with nettles, and
- Posting threatening notices about land, voting, and potatoes.
Another proclamation prescribes a specific prayer to be used during the Great Famine.
“While the repeals offer a snapshot of our country’s rich history, this is about ensuring that our laws reflect the Ireland of today – not the Ireland of centuries past,” said Minister of State Emer Higgins.