Bills
1,078 bills tracked. What do the stages mean?
Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 First Stage Defeated Eoin Ó Broin
- Defers termination dates of residential tenancies ending between bill passage and 31 January 2024, except those involving tenant breach or non-payment of rent.
- Requires short-term tenancies (under 6 months) with no tenant breach to have new termination date of at least 18 April 2024.
- Phases terminations over time to reduce pressure on housing services from deferred evictions during winter emergency period.
Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Limits student accommodation tenancies to maximum 41 weeks per year unless tenant agrees otherwise; breach by landlord is improper conduct subject to RTB sanctions.
- Allows advance rent payments exceeding one month only where student pays both rent and tuition fees to same provider.
- Permits student tenants to terminate fixed-term tenancies by serving 28-day notice between 1 May and 1 October annually, regardless of landlord breach.
Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Increases Court of Appeal ordinary judges from 17 to 18, requiring amendment to Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act 1961.
- Raises criminal penalties: knife offences from 5–7 years imprisonment; offensive weapons manufacturing from 7–10 years; carrier fines for undocumented passengers from €3,000 to €5,000.
- Allows Ministers to set retirement ages for prison officers, firefighters, and gardaí via regulation; fast accrual pensions apply only until age 60 for uniformed staff.
Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Introduces enforcement powers: improvement notices, immediate action notices, temporary prohibition orders (up to 6 weeks), and closure orders to address non-compliance with early years service regulations.
- Extends regulation to all paid non-relative childminders by removing exemptions; defines childminding service as care in childminder's home for minimum 2 hours daily.
- Requires Child and Family Agency to publish enforcement action information; grants 3-year transitional period for existing exempt childminders to register or continue under previous exemptions.
Digital Services (Levy) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Coimisiún na Meán gains power to impose levies on digital intermediary and hosting service providers to fund its Digital Services Act and counter-terrorism work.
- Competition and Consumer Protection Commission gains power to levy online marketplace platforms to cover its Digital Services Act regulatory costs.
- Both authorities can arrange for one to collect levies on the other's behalf, streamlining funding for their respective digital services functions.
Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Introduces Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit for newly unemployed workers, paying 60% of previous earnings (max €450/week) for up to 39 weeks if they have 260+ PRSI contributions.
- Increases PRSI rates cumulatively by 0.7 percentage points from 2024 to 2028, and raises self-employment minimum annual payment from €500 to €650.
- Makes Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit taxable; allows Criminal Assets Bureau to seize social welfare overpayments; adjusts public service pensions for paternity and parents' benefits.
Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Gives Chief Inspector new enforcement powers: issue compliance notices, inspect unregistered premises suspected of operating as nursing homes, and reduce decision timelines from 28 to 14 days.
- Requires Chief Inspector to collect, share with Minister/HIQA/HSE, and publish aggregate data on nursing homes; makes false information submission an offence.
- Expands eligible family successors under Nursing Homes Support Scheme to include cousins, great-nephews/nieces, and great-grandchildren; clarifies farm asset relief provisions.
Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Establishes statutory External Oversight Body for Defence Forces to oversee and monitor human resources management and advise the Minister for Defence.
- Allows Minister for Defence to authorise Defence Forces representative associations to associate with Irish Congress of Trade Unions, with power to impose conditions.
- Makes miscellaneous technical amendments to Defence Act 1954: removes pay regulation requirements, clarifies drug testing authority, broadens prosecutor appointments, protects 'Óglaigh na hÉireann' term.
Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Enables parents to register births and deaths online via MyWelfare, retaining in-person services; establishes Record of Stillbirths accessible to public.
- Reduces stillbirth gestational age threshold from 24 to 23 weeks and weight from 500g to 400g; shortens death registration deadline from 3 months to 28 days.
- Allows interim death certificates during coroner investigations; requires all deaths notified within 5 working days; enables coroners to refer cases back without inquiry.
Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Creates independent State body to establish and administer automatic enrolment retirement savings system for employees not covered by qualifying pension schemes.
- Automatically enrolls eligible employees; allows opting in or out; collects contributions from participants, employers, and State; invests funds and pays savings at State Pension age.
- Board-governed Authority must publish strategy every 3 years, annual plans, statistical data, and conduct system review within 5 years of operation; Pensions Authority supervises.
Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Creates Future Ireland Fund managed by National Treasury Management Agency to support State spending from 2041 onwards, funded by 0.8% of annual GDP contributions from 2024–2035.
- Establishes Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund receiving €2 billion yearly (2025–2030) for emergency fiscal support or environmental projects, with capped annual drawdowns of 22.5% of fund value.
- Dissolves National Surplus (Exceptional Contingencies) Reserve Fund, transferring €2 billion to Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund and remainder to Future Ireland Fund.
Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Excludes Rent a Room relief income (up to €14,000 yearly) from medical card and GP visit card financial assessments, preventing this income from affecting eligibility.
- Clarifies that pharmacists can supply approved medicines without prescriptions and identifies pharmacy as a location where healthcare professionals may administer medicines.
- Enables Minister to approve time-limited Medicines Substitution Protocols allowing pharmacists to therapeutically substitute medications during medicine shortages.
Road Traffic Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Drivers committing multiple penalty point offences on the same occasion now receive multiple sets of points instead of just one, strengthening deterrent effect.
- Default speed limits reduced: built-up areas 50km/h to 30km/h; local roads 80km/h to 60km/h; national secondary roads 100km/h to 80km/h.
- Drug testing by gardaí now mandatory in same circumstances as alcohol testing, requiring oral fluid samples in suspected intoxication or serious collision cases.
Coroners (Amendment) Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Allows Minister for Justice to appoint multiple coroners to Dublin district on fixed 5-year terms (renewable once), changing their status from officeholder to civil servant.
- Enables temporary coroner assignments to any district where workload demands warrant it; Minister can activate without senior coroner request; renewals capped at three.
- Ends deputy coroner positions in Dublin; introduces disqualification criteria for coroner appointments in non-Dublin districts and temporary appointees; applies standard civil service removal rules to Dublin coroners.
Research and Innovation Bill 2024
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Dissolves Science Foundation Ireland and transfers all its staff, assets, and liabilities to new agency Taighde Éireann, merging research funding functions across all disciplines.
- Establishes Taighde Éireann to award competitive research funding, support researcher excellence and retention, and promote research's contribution to economic, social, cultural and environmental development.
- Amends Higher Education Authority Act 2022 to transfer certain research-related staff, assets and liabilities from higher education authority to Taighde Éireann; repeals related provisions from 2003-2014 Acts.
Charities (Amendment) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Charities must seek Authority consent to change charitable purpose or specified constitution clauses; Authority can refuse consent in specific instances and charities cannot proceed without approval.
- Charities must notify Authority of trustee changes, proposed windup, asset transfers, and other key events; Authority gains power to request additional information and remove charities for non-compliance.
- Accounting thresholds raised from €100,000 to €250,000 income/expenditure; company charities now subject to full accounting rules; Authority can require charity accounting standards compliance via regulation.
Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Child maintenance payments excluded from means tests for jobseeker's allowance, disability allowance, state pension (non-contributory), blind pension, carer's allowance and other welfare schemes.
- Repeal of Part 12 of Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 ends liable relative provisions; Department will no longer recoup claim costs from non-resident parents.
- Removes social welfare inspectors' and Deciding Officers' roles in enforcing liable relative obligations under repealed provisions.
Appropriation Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Grants statutory authority for government spending amounts voted by the Dáil during 2023 through original, revised, and supplementary estimates.
- Sets capital spending carryover from 2023 to 2024 as required by the Finance Act 2004, specifying amounts by vote.
- Allows temporary repayable advances from Central Fund to cover early-January 2024 payments, including Social Welfare disbursements by An Post.
Digital Services Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Designates media regulator (Coimisiún na Meán) as Digital Services Coordinator with power to investigate breaches, issue compliance notices, impose fines up to 6% of annual turnover, and seek court orders blocking access to non-compliant platforms.
- Designates Competition and Consumer Protection Commission as competent authority for online marketplace rules; grants investigatory and enforcement powers for those specific articles of the Digital Services Regulation.
- Revokes old eCommerce Directive regulations; enables daily penalty payments and interim measures during investigations; allows information-sharing between regulators and EU authorities for coordinated enforcement.
The Royal Hibernian Academy (Amendment of Charter) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Increases RHA membership from 30 to 55 members to accommodate younger artists in Ireland.
- Removes outdated restrictions: £1,000 annual asset limit, Dublin-only meeting requirement, and nine-member quorum for vice-president elections.
- Creates permanent 'Keeper' position; replaces 'engravers' with 'printmakers' as qualifying profession.
Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Increases weekly rates of maternity, adoptive, paternity, and parent's benefits by €12; extends parent's benefit from seven to nine weeks from August 2024.
- Prevents concurrent payment of illness or injury benefit with statutory sick pay; limits combined weekly payments to six days maximum.
- Allows deferral of State pension (contributory) claims up to age 70 with higher rates at later claim ages; enables long-term carers to qualify for contributory pension in certain circumstances.
Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Updates Risk Equalisation Fund credits paid to insurers from 1 April 2024 to compensate for costs of insuring older and sicker members, with amounts varying by age, sex and cover type.
- Revises hospital utilisation credit amount and high-cost claims percentage applicable to health insurance contracts from 1 April 2024 onwards.
- Amends stamp duty rates in Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 for 1 January–31 March 2024 and from 1 April 2024 to fund the revised credits.
Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Increases Dáil members from 160 to 174 after next dissolution, implementing Electoral Commission's 2023 Constituency Review Report recommendations.
- Redefines Dáil constituencies from 39 to 43, with 15 five-seat, 15 four-seat, and 13 three-seat constituencies as specified in Schedule.
- Repeals the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017 upon next Dáil dissolution.
Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Bill 2023
30 Aug 2024 Enacted
- Amends Protection of Employment Act 1977 to require consultation with employees' representatives before collective redundancies and notification to Minister, with 30-day delay before dismissals take effect, even during insolvency.
- Establishes statutory Employment Law Review Group to monitor and advise Minister on employment and redundancy law, with bi-annual work programmes and annual reports to Oireachtas.
- Amends Companies Act 2014 to require directors notify employees of winding-up petitions, obligate liquidators share financial information with workers as creditors, and ease court remedies for improper asset transfers.