More than 3,000 laws dating back to the days of the Normans are to be repealed in the coming months following a review of legislation ordered by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
The laws to disappear will include the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, which ordered that British authority over the island of Ireland remained undiminished, along with a 1921 Act that gave the Treaty force of law.
The Statute Law Revision Bill, 2007, will go before the Houses of the Oireachtas in coming months and should be enacted by the time of the general election, Mr Ahern said last night.
The legislation was launched in Werburgh Street Church, where one of the leaders of the United Irishmen, Lord Edward FitzGerald, and the man who shot him, Maj HC Sirr, are buried.
One of the pieces of legislation to disappear under the change will be the Act of Attainder, passed after Lord Edward's death, that declared him to be a traitor and confiscated all of his properties.
Legal experts are divided, said Mr Ahern, on how many of the old laws are still applicable, but they remained on the Statute Book following independence, the creation of the Free State and the declaration of the Republic.
"Many of these laws are written in language that is obscure and published in books that are out of print. This means that Irish people are theoretically bound by laws which they cannot find.
"And if they could find them, [ they] could not be expected to understand them. This is simply unacceptable in the modern era," Mr Ahern told the audience, which included Attorney General Rory Brady.
About 1,350 laws passed before the creation of the State will remain in force, though 150 of them dealing with property and conveyancing laws will be repealed once new legislation in this area is passed.
Asked if the repeal of the laws could have unintended consequences, the Taoiseach said: "I hope not. The team that have worked on this have worked hard and done their utmost."
The Office of the Attorney General investigated 22,371 pieces of legislation passed more than 800 years before deciding that 12,000 were not applicable to Ireland and 9,000 had already been repealed.
Lawyers have to investigate laws daily that are hundreds of years old "for certainty", said the Taoiseach.
"It is also unacceptable that there is such uncertainty about exactly what laws actually apply to us today.
"There has never before been a proper survey of exactly which laws from the various parliaments sitting in Westminster were applied to this part of Ireland.
"Even skilled legal experts disagree about the extent to which some British laws apply to Ireland."
