backdating publications

Carawaystick

So this week I checked the Iris Oifiguil site on Tuesday and Wednesday to se if there were new regulations as SI128/2020 finished up at the start of Tuesday (just after midnight Monday)

On the home page Iris Oifiguil says

https://www.irisoifigiuil.ie/ wrote:

Publishing Arrangements

Due to the current Covid-19 emergency, hard copies of Iris Oifigiúil will not be available until further notice. Please refer to this site to view our publications.

Our phone lines will not be operating at this time, and all communication should be conducted through email to info@irisoifigiuil.ie

The Editor,

When I clicked on Current issues, before today, the last issue published was 1st May.

Today, 7th May it says an edition was published on the 5th May. But it wasn't there yesterday or on the 5th May.

Same on http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ before today they only had up to SI152/2020 yet today they have SI153/2020 Health Act 1947 (Section 31A – Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020
and these regs say they were signed on 1st May

Whats the story with saying stuff was published before it was? or not publishing SI's for a week after signing them?

Peregrinus

An SI is effective when it's made, not when it's published (unless the SI itself says differently).

The publication requirements are set out in Statutory Instruments Act 1947 section 3(1). Section 3(2) provides that "the validity or effect or the coming into operation of any statutory instrument . . . shall not be affected by any non-compliance with subsection (1)".

However, if a statutory instrument creates an offence, non-publication may have implications for the ability to enforce the offence.

If you're charged with contravening an offence created by a statutory instrument, the prosecution must prove that, at the date of the contravention, either (a) notice of the SI had been published in Irish Oifigiuil, or (b) "reasonable steps had been taken for the purpose of bringing the purport of the said instrument to the notice of the public or of persons likely to be affected by it or of the defendant".

A copy of the instrument printed by the Stationery Office, including a statement that it was published in IO on a certain date, is prima facie evidence that it was published on that date. But you can challenge that, obviously, if the printed copy says that it was published on 5 May but IO was not issued on 5 May. In which event the prosecutor will have to show that reasonable steps were taken.

In the case of the instrument signed on 1 May, its purpose was to extend SI 121/2020, which would otherwise have expired on 5 May 2020. If you can show that it wasn't published until (at the earliest) 7 May, when it appeared on the relevant websites, then, yeah, I think you have an argument if you are prosecuted over an alleged contravention that took place on 6 May. The prosecutor would presumably argue that reasonable steps had been taken to draw the purport of the instrument - the extension of the emergency measures for another two weeks - to your attention. Whether that argument would succeed would depend on what steps he was able to point to.

Victor

This is another source for SIs. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/statutory.html

While the html version might not be ready promptly, the PDF version often is.

Carawaystick

Victor wrote: »

This is another source for SIs. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/statutory.html

While the html version might not be ready promptly, the PDF version often is.

The pdf wasn't there til Thursday.