Ireland

1. LEGAL GAZETTE

1.1. Overview

Achtanna an Oireachtais/Ionstraim Reachtúil
Acts of the Oireachtas/Parliament/statutory instruments
published (as separate titles, not as part of a legal gazette) by the
Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas
through
Government Supplies Agency, in the Houses of the Oireachtas
51 St Stephen’s Green — Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel. +353 16476838
Fax +353 16476842
E-mail: gsa@opw.ie
Websites: http://www.opw.ie/en/Procurement
Acts of the Oireachtas (http://www.oir.ie)
Statutory instruments (http://www.irisoifigiuil.ie)

Official journal/ legal gazette	Primary legislation (acts of parliament) and secondary legislation (statutory instruments) are published as separate titles and not as part of a legal gazette. Governmental, statutory and other notices are published in the Iris Oifigiúil (Irish State Gazette); see point 1.2 for details.
First edition	31 January 1922
First online edition	2002

Paper edition	Online edition	CD/DVD edition
Individual acts (of primary and secondary legislation) and annual bound volumes of acts are published by the Government Supplies Agency in two editions: Irish and English, or English only. The bilingual edition is published several years in arrears, but publication of the English edition is timelier. *Legally binding*	http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/home.html http://www.oireachtas.ie Available texts 1922–2008 (HTML) 1922–2008 and 1997–2008 (PDF) Access and price Free	Electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB) Available texts The eISB CD-ROM includes the full text of Acts of the Oireachtas, statutory instruments and the Legislation Directory (Chronological Tables) for the period 1922–2001. Price EUR 35

Annex 1 - Comparative table 1a: Types, media and financing

1.2. Details on the legal gazette in general

Content	Acts of Parliament (Saorstát Éireann statutes, 1922–37, Acts of the Oireachtas, since 1938) Secondary legislation (statutory rules, orders and regulations 1922–47, statutory instruments, since 1948) Preparatory works (bills)
Legal basis	According to the constitution of Ireland 1937 a bill is promulgated as law by the publication by the President of a notice in the Iris Oifigiúil stating that the bill has become law.
Legally binding	The paper edition is legally binding. (According to the Documentary Evidence Act 1925 a copy of an act published by the Stationery Office is prima facie evidence of that act, and according to the Statutory instruments Act 1947 a statutory instrument published by the Stationery Office is prima facie evidence of the statutory instrument.)
Financing	Financed by the state (Government Supplies Agency) offset by sales revenue
Other gazettes	Iris Oifigiúil (Irish State Gazette — http://www.irisoifigiuil.ie), which replaced the Dublin Gazette in 1922 is the official gazette as cited in the Adaptation of Enactments Act 1922. It is the medium for publishing governmental, statutory and other notices and announcements and it contains a list of recent statutory instruments. In addition to the biweekly publication of Iris Oifigiúil, a number of supplements are published at various times during the year.

Annex 1 - Comparative table 1a: Types, media and financing

1.3. Details on the online edition

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/home.html
http://www.oireachtas.ie
See also point 1.1

Date of creation	2002
Functionalities	Download
Format description	HTML

Annex 1 - Comparative table 3: Online access to legislation

1.4. Details on the publishing institution

Authority responsible	Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas Leinster House — Dublin 2 Ireland Tel. +353 16183267 Fax +353 16184103 E-mail: info@oireachtas.ie Website: http://www.oireachtas.ie/
Publishing body	Government Supplies Agency within the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas For contact details, please refer to point 1.1
Form and nature of the publishing body	Public body
Basic tasks of the publishing body	Pre-press: yes Printing: yes Dissemination/distribution: yes Legal gazette online: yes Legislation database: no Consolidation: no

Annex 1 - Comparative table 1b: Publishing institutions

1.5. Drafting and publishing procedures

Text processing system	Specially designed text processing systems are used for: drafting bills (Office of the Attorney General); amending bills and publishing acts of the Oireachtas (Houses of the Oireachtas); processing statutory instruments (Government Supplies Agency). Different, but related, systems are used for primary and secondary legislation. Bills are drafted using Word templates and converted to XML. XML editors are used for processing bills, acts and statutory instruments.
Workflow	One system is used for drafting legislation. A separate system is used for adopting and publishing legislation. The draft legislation is sent electronically and on paper and converted into XML.
Publishing	The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas is in charge of proofreading and editing. The period between reception of the draft and availability of the published text is two days. The paper and electronic editions are derived from the same final text file and are published at the same time.

2. COLLECTIONS OF CONSOLIDATED LEGISLATION

At present no official collection of consolidated legislation exists, but there is an activity of ad hoc consolidation (restatement).
Consolidated texts are published on the Irish Statute Book website (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie).

Body carrying out consolidation	Law Reform Commission (an independent body established under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975) took this task over from the Office of the Attorney General (http://www.lawreform.ie/).
Content	Restatements In Ireland, the consolidation activity is called restatement and is based on the Statute Law (Restatement) Act 2002. In accordance with this act, the Law Reform Commission produces statute law restatements. A restatement is an administrative consolidation of an act, as amended subsequently, which is made available in printed or electronic form in a single text and is certified by the Attorney General as an up-to-date statement of the act in question as amended. The restatements are not legally binding; they can, however, be cited in court as prima facie evidence of the law set out in them. By spring 2009, four restatements had been certified and published (for details see http://www.attorneygeneral.ie/slru/restatements.html). NB 1: Legislation Directory At present (apart from the limited number of restatements certified), in order to ascertain what legislation is in operation and what has been amended by subsequent enactments, the Office of the Attorney General publishes a Legislation Directory (http://www.attorneygeneral.ie/slru/slru.html#Chronological). NB 2: Consolidation Acts A consolidating act ‘consolidates’ (i.e. in continental civil law terminology ‘codifies’) existing statute law on a particular subject matter by repealing and re-enacting acts and amendments to those acts in a single legally binding act. Special procedures relating to consolidation bills are set out in standing orders of the Parliament (http://www.attorneygeneral.ie/slru/slru.html#statutelawrevisionproject).
Status of the consolidated texts	Restatements can be considered as semi-official.

Annex 1 - Comparative table 2: Systematic consolidation

3. LEGISLATIVE PORTALS AND ONLINE DATABASES

3.1. Official portals

The chapters on acts and bills of the parliament website also serve as a legislation portal: Houses of the Oireachtas (www.oireachtas.ie), see point 3.2, no. 2 for details.

3.2. Official databases

1. Irish Statute Book

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie

Organisation responsible	Office of the Attorney General
Content	Primary and secondary legislation (in non-consolidated form) Some (very few) consolidated versions (restatements)
Access via N-Lex (see Annex 2)	Yes
Access	Free of charge

2. Houses of the Oireachtas

http://www.oireachtas.ie

Organisation responsible	Houses of the Oireachtas
Content	Acts and bills from 1997 to date Links to the legislation in point 3.2, no. 1
Access	Free of charge