A new broadband Flash Webcasting service of Dáil Éireann is now available on the Houses of the Oireachtas Web site.

This is in addition to the Oireachtas Live Windows Media Player, MPEG2 and MPEG4 services already available.

This service will be available for the Budget Debate on Tuesday 13 October 2008.

Publication of Bills, Explanatory Memoranda, and Financial Memoranda

Bills and Explanatory Memoranda and Financial Memoranda are published by the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas on the Houses’ Web site, and on paper through the Stationery Office (Government Supplies Agency).

If a bill is amended by a House or by a parliamentary committee, the bill is printed again “as amended in committee” or “as passed by Dáil Éireann” or “as passed by Seanad Éireann” and published on the Houses’ Web site.

If a bill is passed by both Houses, it is printed again “as passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas“.

When a bill is passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas, and signed by the President, it becomes and Act of the Oireachtas (statute law).

The Act is promulgated as a law when:

• A notice appears in the Iris Oifigiúil (the Official Irish State Gazette) http://www.irisoifigiuil.ie/ by direction of the president
• A signed copy of the bill is enrolled in the Office of the Supreme Court
• The Office of the President informs the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas that the president has signed the bill, and the Act number is also supplied.
• The Office of the Supreme Court informs the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas that the Act has been enrolled in the Office of the registrar of the Supreme Court.

At this stage, the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas will pubish the Act, and the official translation, on paper through the Stationery Office, and on the Houses’ Web site as a PDF file.

At a later stage, the Office of the Attorney Will publish a bound volume of the Acts of the Oireachtas, and add the text of the Acts to the Irish Stature Book Web site. The Legislation Directory will also be updated.

The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas will pubish the bound volumes of the official translations of the Acts of the Oireachtas.

Publication of Statutory Instruments

Statutory instruments are usually published by agency responsible for the instrument, and a notice appears in the Iris Oifigiúil.

Statutory instruments are later added to the Irish Statute Book Web site.

The European Parliament launched its EuroparlTV Web TV service on 17 September 2008. The Dublin launch took place in the European Parliament offices in Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.

You can see the service at: http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/ 

An extract from the briefing note follows:

Europarltv is not a single channel but rather is split into four channels, each directed to a different audience:

Your Parliament, aimed at those with a particular interest in politics at the EU level: informed citizens, industry groups, social partners, lobbyists, academics as well as those working in the EU institutions.

Your Voice, conceived for the general public and providing the possibility of featuring user-generated content.

Young Europe, aimed particularly at school-aged children, high users of the Internet and the European electorate of the future.

Parliament Live provides continuous coverage of live events in the Parliament, notably debates in the plenary sessions, with a link to the audiovisual archives of previous sessions, as well as in the coming months, the activities of the committees.

This post outlines the legal basis of the publication of legislation in Ireland.

Proof of Acts of the Oireachtas

2. —

Prima facie evidence of this or any other Act of the Oireachtas whether public, or private, and whether passed before or after the passing of this Act, or of the Journal of the Proceedings of either House of the Oireachtas, may be given in all Courts of Justice and in all legal proceedings by the production of a copy of such Act or Journal printed under the superintendence or authority of and published by the Stationery Office.

Signing and Promulgation of Laws

Article 25 4

2° Every Bill signed by the President under this Constitution shall be promulgated by him as a law by the publication by his direction of a notice in the Iris Oifigiúil stating that the Bill has become law.

5° As soon as may be after the signature and promulgation of a Bill as a law, the text of such law which was signed by the President or, where the President has signed the text of such law in each of the official languages, both the signed texts shall be enrolled for record in the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, and the text, or both the texts, so enrolled shall be conclusive evidence of the provisions of such law.

3.—

(1) The following provisions shall apply in respect of every statutory instrument to which this Act primarily applies

 (a ) within seven days after the making thereof, a copy thereof shall be sent to each of the following, namely, the National Library of Ireland, the Law Library, Four Courts, Dublin, the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, the Cork Chamber of Commerce the Limerick Chamber of Commerce, the Waterford Chamber of Commerce and the Galway Chamber of Commerce,

( b ) as soon as may be after it is made, it shall, notwithstanding that it is liable to be annulled, be printed under the superintendence of the Stationery Office,

( c ) as soon as may be after it has been printed, notice of the making thereof and of the place where copies thereof may be obtained shall be published in the Iris Oifigiúil,

( d ) as on and from the date of the issue of the Iris Oifigiúil containing the said notice, copies of the said statutory instrument shall be kept at the place specified in the said notice and may be obtained there.

Copyright in Acts, etc.

192.—

(1) The copyright in any Bill or enactment vests in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

(2) The copyright provided for in this section subsists from the date of the first lawful making available to the public of the work and shall expire 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was so made available.

Official Collection

There is no official collection (collections that are legally binding by or on behalf of a State authority) of consolidated legislation in Ireland.

However, consolidation Acts are used on occasion to consolidate the law in certain areas.

Restatements are administrative consolidations of acts, which will be available in future.

The Legislation Directory (Chronoloical Tables) gives a view of an act or statutory instrument, as amendmented by later statutes or statutory instruments.

More details of each category are available below.

Access: free

Status: informative value

Available Media: On-line database / Website, CD-ROM

Deadline for Consolidation: There is no deadline for consolidation

Organisation responsible: Office of the Attorney General

Contents

Consolidation Acts

A consolidating Act consolidates 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 Houses of the Oireachtas.

Examples of consolidation acts are:

• Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005
• Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997

Access: free

Status: PDF copies of Acts and Official translations legally binding (prima facie evidence), html copies – informative value

Available Media: On-line database / Website, DVD (Debates)

Deadline for Consolidation: There is no deadline for consolidation

Organisation responsible: Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas

Contents

Consolidation Acts

A consolidating Act consolidates 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 Houses of the Oireachtas.

Examples of consolidation acts are:

• Taxes Consolidation Act 1997
  • Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 – File 1
  • Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 – File 2
  • Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 – File 3
• Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005

Access: free

Status: work in progress, will be prima facie evidence in court

Available Media: On-line database / Website

Deadline for Consolidation: There is no deadline for consolidation

Organisation responsible:

Contents

Restatements

In accordance with the Statute Law Restatement Act 2002, 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. 

Access: free

Status: informative value

Available Media: On-line database / Website, CD-ROM

Deadline for Consolidation: There is no deadline for consolidation

Organisation responsible: Office of the Attorney General

Contents

Legislation Directory (Chronological Tables)

The purpose of the Legislative Directory is to enable users of the Irish Statute Book to identify whether a particular provision has been amended or otherwise affected since its enactment.

The Legislation Directory 1922-2005 indicates how the following statutes are affected by:

• Acts of the Oireachtas,
• Saorstát Éireann (Irish Free State) Statutes,
• or Statutory Instruments:

The following statutes are affected:

• Pre-Union Irish Statutes (1236-1800)
• English Statutes (1226-1707)
• Pre-Union British Statutes (1707-1800)
• United Kingdom Statutes (1801-1922)
• Saorstát Éireann Statutes  (1922-1937)
• Acts of the Oireachtas (1937-2008)

The Legislation Directory also lists:

• Orders made under section 6(1) of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 1939
• Commencement orders under the 1922-2005 legislation
• Regulations made under section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972

Constitution of Ireland

Access: free

Status: informative value

Available Media: On-line database / Website

Organisation responsible: Department of the Taoiseach

Contents

The Constitution of Ireland – Bunreacht na hÉireann is available on-line on the Department of the Taoiseach’s (prime minister’s) Web site.

Access: free

Status: informative value

Available Media: On-line database / Website, CD-ROM

Organisation responsible: Office of the Attorney General

Contents

Acts of the Oireachtas are published by the Stationery Office, Government Supplies Agency, part of the Office of Public Works, and available for sale through the Government Publications Sale Office, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, by mail order, or through any bookseller.

The Irish Statute Book Web site www.irishstatutebook.ie, published by the Office of the Attorney General,  contains the following legal texts in HTML:

• Primary Legislation
  • Acts of the Oireachtas1922 to 2008 (html)
    • Acts of the Oireachtas (Saorstát Éireann Statutes) 1922 – 1937
    • Acts of the Oireachtas 1937 – 2008
• Secondary Legislation
  • Statutory Rules, Orders and Regulations 1922 – 1947 by series (html)
  • Statutory Instruments – 1948 – 2005 (no. 350 of 2005) (html)
  • Statutory Instruments 2007 – 2008 (PDF format)
• Legislation Directory (Chronological Tables)
  • The Legislation Directory 1922-2005 indicates how the following are affected by Acts of the Oireachtas, Saorstát Éireann (Irish Free State) Statutes, or Statutory Instruments:
    • Pre-Union Irish Statutes (1236-1800)
    • English Statutes (1226-1707)
    • Pre-Union British Statutes (1707-1800)
    • United Kingdom Statutes (1801-1922)
    • Saorstát Éireann Statutes  (1922 – 1937)
  • The Legislation Directory also lists:
    • Orders made under section 6(1) of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 1939
    • Commencement orders under the 1922-2005 legislation
    • Regulations made under section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972

Access: free

Status: PDF copies of Acts and Official translations – legally binding (prima facie evidence), html – informative value

Available Media: On-line database / Website, DVD (Debates)

Organisation responsible: Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas

Contents

Bills, Acts and Official Translations, and Parliamentary Debates

The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas Web site contains the full text of Bills, Explanatory and Financial Memoranda, Amendments, Acts of the Oireachtas and Official Translations, and Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.

• Acts of the Oireachtas and available Official Translations 1922 – 2002 are available as html on the following Oireachtas Web sites:
  • http://achtanna.oireachtas.ie/ (no frames search)
  • http://achtanna2.oireachtas.ie/ (frames search, indicating which Acts are available on-line in both languages)
• Bills and explanatory Memoranda 1997 – 2008 - this includes the full text (in PDF) of all bills and explanatory memoranda since 1997, including links from the arrangement of sections to the sections of the bill. Amendment lists are included, and amendments in context are being developed at present. Links to debates on bills are also included.
• Parliamentary Debates of both Houses since 1919 as available as html. Parliamentary committee debates will be added in 2008.

Committee Debates

Available committee debates will be added to the hsitorical debates Web site.

Committee Reports

Available committee reports will be added to the historical debates Web site.

eChamber

This Web site will be focused on the business before the Dáil today and this week. The system will be extended to the Seanad and Committees. The site will be available in the chambers, committee rooms, on the Intranet, Extranet, and in time on the Web.

Amendments in Context

This site will be a sub site of eChamber, focused on amendments to bills, presented in context, that is, how the section would appear if the amendment was accepted.

Automatic updating feed

A system which would automatically update a page with the business before the House at that point in time is being looked at. This feed could include the video feed of what is happening in the House (or committee) and the amendment, question or motion before the House, at that point in time. The user would be able to select which data (video or document) they would like to see.

Linking legisation and debates

A system that would provide links between Acts, and the debates on the corresponding bills is being prototyped.

Extranet

Intranet sites (including eCha,ber, and Library and Research premium sites) are available over the Web via an Extranet.

This note outlines the Oireachtas Web sites.

A CMS is used to publish the pages to this site.

Pages can ve viewed as

• Web pages,
• text only pages, (useful for dial up users)
• print version (menus are supressed)
• PDA

Pages can also be viewed in English or Irish.

Pages an be viewed by category. HTML filenames can also be used.

Dublin Core Metadata can be added.

A wrapper is provided for PDF, MS Word and RTF files, including DC Metadata and, title and an abstract.

WAP functionality is available, but not used.

Web survey functionality is included.

SMS functionality can be added.

RSS is added manually.

Email alerts are also available, created manually.

CMS supplied by Fusio.

XML files of Bills, and Acts are converted into PDF by Cahill Printers Limited, using an XML files created using an XML authoring system created by Propylon.

Mysql is used to store and present this database.

Original database created by Propylon for the Historical Debates Web site. Current version adapted for the Web site by by Fusio.

This site is XML based, and staff can edit the debatse on-line.

Log files are created using a logging system supplied by Digitake.

Takes are created in a Lotus Notes system, converted into MS Word or RTF (10 takes), and parsed into XML.

Data is presented to the users as HTML cached files, HTML generated on the fly from XML, and as PDF with links from a contents page.

The system was written using Microsoft .NET by Cahill Printers Limited.

The XML files from the current debates system are converted into SGML, and then into HTML, day menus are created, DC Metadata is added.

Created by Propylon.

http://acts.oireachtas.ie/ (no frames search)

http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/ (frames search)

Note the bilingual view, and the links between the Irish and English versions.

XML fils of Acts are converted into HTML.

XML authoring system, Web sites and translation aid created by Propylon.

http://ceanncomhairle.oireachtas.ie/

http://cathaoirleach.oireachtas.ie/

Created using Frontpage by Fusio.

Windows Media Webcasting and MPEG2 IPTV provided in association with HEAnet, Ireland’s National Research and Educational Network.

XML links can be created which will replay part of the video archives. Complete recordings can be downloaded.

IPTV – Government Networks

MPEG4 IPTV provided in association with the Department of Finance.

http://euaffairs.ie/

Created using Dreamweaver by Fusio.

Page and PDF files supplied by Cahill Printers Limited.

Written using Lotus Notes by Siemens.

See also

• ECRG Evaluation of the Houses of the Oireachtas Pilot e-Consultation for the Proposed Broadcasting Bill and
• Response to the eConsultation Research Group evaluation of the eConsultation project

Prototype created by Fusio.

A microsite created in order to publish a committee report.

Created by ?

Websites are usually hosted by the LGCSB (Local Government Computer Services Board).

Provided in association with the Department of Finance.

Various search tools have been used to allow users to search the Houses Web sites.

PLWeb

• Search Historical Debates 
• Search Achtanna 

An old but effective search engine “PLWeb” is used to provide searching on the following hugh Web sites:

• Historical Debates
  http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/index.html
• Achtanna.oireachtas.ie or Acts.oireachtas.ie
  http://achtanna.oireachtas.ie/ or http://acts.oireachtas.ie/

The search index is updated when new data is added. DC Metadata is added to the pages, adding to the search functionality.

dtSearch

http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/dtSearch_english.html

In order to allow users to see what Acts are available on-line in both Irish and English, an alternative version of Achtanna.ie is available as achtanna2.oireachtas.ie or acts2.oireachtas.ie using the dtsearch search engine is provided:

• http://achtanna2.oireachtas.ie/ or
• http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/

Google

• http://search.gov.ie/ 
• http://search.gov.ie/sites/www.oireachtas.ie/ - Main Oireachtas site
• http://search.gov.ie/sites/debates.oireachtas.ie - Current Debates

A Google appliance and on-line Google tools are available for users who wish to search the other Oireachtas sites:

• Main or portal site:
  http://www.oireachtas.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/home.asp
• Current or Latest Debates:
  http://debates.oireachtas.ie/Main.aspx
• http://ceanncomhairle.oireachtas.ie/default.asp
• http://cathaoirleach.oireachtas.ie/default.asp
• etc.

Lucene

Lucene is used for the committee reports site under development.

Other Search engines

A number of other search engines were used over the years, including:

• Lotus Notes based search may have been available in 1996 when the site was Notes based.
• 1997 … A search tools provided by gov.ie designed by a student I believe!
• FrontPage search – specific to a particular Web – the site soon grew too big for this search engine
• Open Objects search engine was used before Google
• Current debates has a search facility within each day’s debates
  see Dáil 10 July 2008 - ”Find Text Today”
• The members database has a search facility built in
  http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/
• The order papers page has its own search facility
• You can search within a PDF file as long as it is not scanned. Be careful with Irish words as DíOSPóIREACHTAí appears as DI´OSPO´ IREACHTAI´

Issues

1. The Oireachtas Web site is very large, with millions of pages. Search engines can get very expensive when required to index so many pages.
2. Configuring the search engine to index pages served up by a CMS or XML based system, where multiple versions of the same page are available on-line, and where you have heterogeneous technologies on a site, can be problematic, to say the least!
3. Where PDF files are used extensively in the site, and where Irish language characters are used in PDF documents, the search engines seem unable to interpret the Irish text. Such characters would include: ÁÉÍÓÚ and áéíóú. This means that Irish language based searching is difficult.

The Schedule of Business this Week in the Houses of the Oireachtas page is published on Friday afternoon, containing the business for the following week in the Dáil, Seanad and  Parliamentary Committees.

This Week in the Houses of the Oireachtas is compiled by the eDemocracy Unit of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas from information supplied by the Office of the Ceann Comhairle, the Office of the Cathaoirleach, the Seanad Office, the Journal Office, the Public Bills Office, the Questions Office, the Office of the Government Chief Whip (Dáil), the Office of the Government Chief Whip (Seanad), the Committee Secretariat, and the Public Relations Office.

Links are provided to the HTML page of Bills under discussion that week, including the full text of the bill (for every edition of the bill), the amendment lists, links to earlier debates).

An RSS feed is available here.

Email alerts are available here.

The page is updated as new information becomes available.