| Current status | 2020 |  |
| Short term status | 2016 - 2020 | |
| Long term status | 2011 - 2020 | |
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The Irish Statute Book database comprises the Acts of the Oireachtas, Statutory Instruments and Legislation Directory of the Statutes for the period 1922 onwards. The source material for the database is the bound volumes of the Acts of the Oireachtas and Statutory Instruments 1922 to date as published by The Stationery Office.
The sole and exclusive power of making laws for the State is vested in the Oireachtas subject to the obligations of European Union Membership as provided in the Constitution of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the President and two Houses, Dáil Eireann and Seanad Eireann. All primary legislation, i.e. Acts of the Oireachtas, start life as Bills which are proposals for legislation in either the Dáil or Seanad.
Secondary legislation, in the form of Statutory Instruments, is governed by the Statutory Instruments Act 1947. Statutory Instruments have a wide variety of functions. They are not enacted by the Oireachtas but allow persons or bodies to whom legislative power has been delegated by statute to legislate in relation to detailed day-to-day matters arising from the operation of the relevant primary legislation. Specified Government Ministers, state agencies and bodies are authorised to make Statutory Instruments and several hundred instruments are made annually.
This indicator measures the numbers of biodiversity-relevant primary and secondary legislative instruments introduced into the Irish Statute Book since in 1973. This year was chosen as a cut-off point as it is the year that Ireland joined the European Economic Community and became subject to the associated legislative obligations. The number of legislative instruments were quantified using the search tool of the Irish Statute Book database (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/advanced-search.html) using the following individual searches (note Boolean operator AND, with exact phrases in quotation marks):
Search for word(s)/phrase in Title:
bee, beetle, conservation, “control of organisms”, “environmental impact”, flora, fauna, “game birds”, nature, phytosanitary, pesticides, wild, wildlife, whale
Search for word(s)/phrase in Title/text:
forest AND conservation, forest AND protection, habitat
Results from all searches were collated and duplicates removed.
More information on the relevant legislation for biodiversity conservation in Ireland can be found here:
Number of relevant legislative instruments introduced
Owing to both requirements due to EU decisions and increasing awareness of the importance of conservation, new and revised legislation can be introduced. This indicator shows the number of introduced relevant legislative instruments over time.