In 2007, and in light of the transfer of Statute Law Restatement to the Commission, the Attorney General requested the Commission to take over functional responsibility for the Legislation Directory (previously called the Chronological Tables of the Statutes) and the Commission agreed to this request.
What is the Legislation Directory?
The Legislation Directory is a publicly available database. Its main purpose is to document amendments to primary legislation made since 1922. The current version of the Legislation Directory is hosted on the Irish Statute Book online website at www.irishstatutebook.ie/chronological.html
The ongoing maintenance by the Commission of the Legislation Directory will greatly assist in preparing Statute Law Restatements, and will complement the liaison required between the Commission and the Attorney General in the certification of Restatements. In a wider context, the Legislation Directory is a vital source of information to aid legal professionals, legislators and lay persons to inform themselves as to the current position of the law. It is a key factor in making the law more accessible to users.
The Legislation Directory and Economic Growth
Accessibility to the Irish Statute Book can also be seen against the background of general regulatory reform. In 1999, the Government adopted recommendations made in Reducing Red Tape – An Action Programme of Regulatory Reform in Ireland. That report focused on the importance of regulation for continued economic growth and greater competitiveness. One of the key recommendations was the process of making legislation more coherent and more easily accessible to those who use it.
A report published in 2001 by the OECD also made a connection between regulatory reform in Ireland and continuing economic growth. It stated:
“[R]egulatory reform is seen as a way to open up important infrastructure and policy bottlenecks to further growth and to attain efficiency improvements that can help manage inflationary pressures.”
In 2004, the Government issued a White Paper Regulating Better. That paper was seen as a response to the 2001 OECD Report. The White Paper considered the importance of making legislation more accessible to all and better understood. It identified clarification of legislation as playing an important role in reducing the red tape that affects small businesses. The Paper also endorsed “greater use of e-Government and IT to increase the transparency and accessibility of regulations”.
Work of the Commission on the Legislation Directory
In July 2008, the Commission published a Consultation Paper on the Legislation Directory: Towards A Best Practice Model (LRC CP 49-2008). The Consultation Paper reviews the development of the Legislation Directory to date and sets out the Commission’s view on how it can be further enhanced in terms of content and accessibility. Proposals for improvement of the Directory include more timely updates, the inclusion of comprehensive commencement information for Acts and their individual provisions, and association of statutory instruments with parent Acts. The Commission will begin implementing these proposals in 2009. The Commission intends to publish its Report on the Legislation Directory in 2010.
The Legislation Directory and eLegislation
In its Consultation Paper, the Commission also considers the future of the Legislation Directory in the wider context of the Government’s eLegislation strategy. Significant elements of this strategy are already in place. These include the electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB), the electronic Statutory Instrument System (eSIS), and the Legislative Workbench system in the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Commission is committed to ensuring that the ongoing development of the Legislation Directory will complement and be fully compatible with the development of these projects. An ad hoc group to progress the eLegislation agenda started work in December 2007 with the Commission’s participation.