Bills
1,078 bills tracked. What do the stages mean?
Electricity Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Darren O'Rourke
- Expands CRU powers to monitor and regulate hedging practices in energy markets, with new monthly reporting on supply prices and supplier margins.
- Strengthens CRU authority to monitor anti-competitive behaviour by gas and electricity suppliers and enhance consumer protection from unfair pricing.
- Requires CRU to report quarterly on retail electricity and gas market functioning; gives Minister power to issue affordability-based policy directions to CRU.
Education (Smartphones in Primary Schools) Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Peadar Tóibín
- Prohibits primary school students from using smartphones during the school day, enforced by principals and teachers.
- Aims to promote student welfare and education by restricting smartphone access in primary schools.
- Defines key terms and sets out implementation rules for the prohibition during school hours.
Grocery Price Caps Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Paul Murphy
- Amends Consumer Protection Act 2007 to declare emergency on basic foodstuff supply and establish Grocery Price Caps Commission to set maximum prices.
- Commission determines which foods get price caps based on dietary importance, recent price rises, profit margins, and impact on vulnerable groups.
- Minister for Enterprise must review the Act's operation within 12 months of enactment.
Residential Tenancies (Illegal Evictions) (Amendment) Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Creates criminal offence of forcibly ending a tenancy; gardaí can arrest without warrant those suspected of committing it.
- Allows Residential Tenancies Board to award exemplary damages up to €40,000 where illegal eviction is found to have occurred.
- Requires Property Services Regulatory Authority, Revenue Commissioners and landlord agents to share tenant/landlord identity data with the Board for enforcement purposes.
Restriction of Imports (States in violation of obligations under the Genocide Convention and Occupied Territories) Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Catherine Connolly
- Creates criminal offences for importing, selling, or extracting resources from occupied territories or states violating Genocide Convention obligations.
- Makes it illegal to import goods from occupied settlements or provide services to defence/security forces of states in violation.
- Empowers Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to make regulations implementing the Bill's provisions.
Fair Procedures in the Administration of Justice Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Patrick Costello
- Requires administrative decision-makers (quasi-judicial bodies) to apply fair procedures and due process standards equivalent to courts, as required by Article 37 of the Constitution.
- Gives Minister power to designate which bodies must follow fair procedures and to issue regulations setting out what those procedures must be.
- Applies to administrative bodies exercising judicial-type functions, listed in the bill's schedule, following Supreme Court ruling that their justice standards cannot be lower than courts'.
Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Jim O'Callaghan
- Amends Maternity Protection Act 1994 to allow postponement of maternity leave if mother diagnosed with cancer or serious illness during pregnancy.
- New legal section inserted defining cancer and other serious illness, enabling mothers to defer maternity leave entitlements.
- Bill also permits postponement of additional maternity leave for affected mothers, protecting leave eligibility for later use.
Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Sex for Rent) Bill 2024
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Makes it a criminal offence for landlords to seek sex from tenants instead of rent or to advertise such arrangements.
- Amends section 19 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to create this new offence.
- Applies to advertisements on social media and other platforms offering or requesting sex in exchange for housing.
Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Danny Healy-Rae
- Amends the 2015 Gender Recognition Act to address single-sex prison accommodation rules.
- Aims to clarify how prison housing is arranged for people with gender recognition certificates.
- Bill did not progress beyond First Stage introduction; it lapsed without further debate or votes.
Children (Amendment) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Patrick Costello
- Amends Children Act 2001 to extend privacy protections to all entitled to them, closing gaps where protections applied retroactively to some but not others.
- Ensures minors who committed offences receive consistent privacy safeguards across all relevant provisions of the Children Act 2001.
- Addresses inconsistency in application of protections by extending safeguards to those previously excluded due to retroactive provision implementation.
Anaerobic Digestion (National Strategy) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Christopher O'Sullivan
- Minister creates national anaerobic digestion strategy covering agricultural, industrial, hospitality and domestic uses to increase renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Strategy enables waste organic matter conversion to biogas and fertiliser through sealed reactor facilities, with potential farmer co-operative models sharing energy dividends.
- Minister empowered to make regulations supporting strategy implementation; Ireland currently has 13 digesters versus Germany's 10,000.
Planning and Development (Climate Emergency Measures) (Amendment) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Bríd Smith
- Restricts planning authorities from approving new fossil fuel infrastructure and high-energy data centres during the climate emergency period, as declared by Dáil Éireann.
- Removes LNG terminals and other fossil fuel projects from the seventh schedule, preventing them from being classified as strategic infrastructure and bypassing An Bord Pleanála direct applications.
- Requires An Bord Pleanála to assess planning applications against State climate targets, national climate objective, and atmospheric CO2 levels; may consult EPA on consistency.
Planning and Development (Provision of Public Housing) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Chris Andrews
- Repeals section 97(3)(b) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, removing a specific planning provision.
- Amends section 97 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 as previously modified in 2002.
- Bill lapsed at First Stage; no amendments to planning rules for public housing provision were enacted.
Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Barry Cowen
- Gives An Bord Pleanála power to determine applications and appeals pending 12+ months within 18 weeks.
- Prohibits An Bord Pleanála refusing permission solely because relevant considerations changed since application was made, unless applicant given chance to respond.
- Clarifies Board's power to request information and invite submissions from parties and public on pending strategic housing, infrastructure and direct applications.
Education (Inclusion of Persons) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Chris Andrews
- Schools must publish inclusion policies with objectives for special needs classes; must consider special educational needs organiser recommendations in admissions and school plans; must explain publicly if they reject recommendations.
- Government must publish data on spending for transporting special needs students outside their planning areas and numbers without school places; NCSE must report annually on planning transparency.
- Disabled persons organisations gain role in agreeing school board composition; special educational needs organisers gain function to recommend accommodation actions to school boards.
Criminal Justice (Search Warrant Oversight) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Patrick Costello
- Removes Garda superintendent and above authority to issue search warrants without court involvement across four major criminal justice acts (1939, 1925, 1963, 1977).
- Requires all search warrants to obtain independent court approval instead of Garda self-authorization, adding judicial oversight to warrant decisions.
- Aims to strengthen citizen protections by ensuring impartial judicial review balances law enforcement needs against individual privacy rights in search warrant cases.
European Convention on Human Rights (Challenge to British Government Amnesty) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Peadar Tóibín
- Requires Irish Government to apply to European Court of Human Rights if British Parliament enacts amnesty legislation for crimes in/relating to Northern Ireland.
- Application triggered automatically under Article 33 of European Convention on Human Rights as soon as reasonably practicable after British amnesty legislation is enacted.
- Enables European Court to rule whether British amnesty legislation breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.
Electricity Regulation (Amendment) (Standing Charges) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Darren O'Rourke
- Amends Electricity Regulation Act 1999 to give CRU legal power to monitor and regulate standing charges on electricity and gas bills, which are currently unregulated.
- Requires utility companies to obtain CRU approval before increasing standing charges and limits charges to cover fixed connection and maintenance costs only.
- Empowers CRU to investigate suppliers using standing charges to boost profits and order excessive charges be reduced to cost-recovery levels.
Commission of Investigation (Collusion of British State Forces) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Peadar Tóibín
- Establishes a public inquiry (Commission of Investigation) into collusion between British State forces and others to commit or obstruct prosecution of serious offences across the island of Ireland, 1968–1998.
- Government must create the Commission within three months of the Bill passing, with at least three members and defined terms of reference covering specified issues in the Schedule.
- Commission may request documents and evidence from inside or outside the State, consult previous inquiries, and prepare reports—but reports cannot prejudice ongoing criminal proceedings elsewhere.
Criminal Justice (Public Order) (Amendment) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Peadar Tóibín
- Amends Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 to require minimum prison sentences for assaults on doctors, gardaí, firefighters, ambulance staff and peace officers.
- Sets minimum sentences: six months for summary conviction, two years for indictment conviction; sentences cannot be suspended in whole or part.
- Applies only to adults causing harm through assault; sentencing court has no discretion to reduce or suspend the minimum term.
Public Art Mural (Exempted Development) Bill 2023
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Amends Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to exempt certain public art murals from needing planning permission if they have artistic or cultural merit and owner consent.
- Exemption applies only to murals on private property that are not commercial ads and comply with Equal Status Acts; excludes listed structures and conservation areas.
- Defines key terms: 'artistic or cultural merit', 'commercial advertisement', and 'public art mural' to establish eligibility criteria for the exemption.
Cost of Renewables Taskforce Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Darren O'Rourke
- Requires Minister to establish cross-departmental taskforce to examine factors driving high renewable energy production costs in Ireland compared to Europe.
- Taskforce must consult stakeholders and deliver policy recommendations within six months on reducing renewable energy cost per megawatt-hour.
- Aims to lower electricity prices for consumers and make Irish renewable energy competitive for export markets.
Eviction Ban Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Richard Boyd Barrett
- Bans landlords from serving eviction notices during a 12-month emergency period, except for serious property damage, anti-social behaviour, or insurance issues.
- Extends any termination notices already served with end dates during the emergency period until after the emergency period ends.
- Allows government to renew the ban beyond 12 months if the Minister for Housing deems it in public interest due to cost-of-living and housing crises.
Education (Affordable School Uniforms) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
- Minister must make regulations requiring schools to develop affordable uniform policies in consultation with parents and students, with clear public disclosure of optional versus required items.
- Schools must source uniforms from multiple retailers, minimize branded items, limit crests to iron-on/sew-on only, and facilitate second-hand uniform access and sibling hand-downs.
- Schools must comply within one year; Ombudsman for Children's Office reports on compliance and cost reduction 18 months after regulations published, then annually.