Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698136003532.pdf (Ireland)
BILLE I DTAOBH DEARBHUITHE REACHTULA, 1938.

STATUTORY DECLARATIONS BILL, 1938.

MEMORANDUM.

Section 18 of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835, authorises the following persons to take and receive statutory declarations:— (a) a justice of the peace; (b) a notary public; (c) any other officer by law authorised at the time of the passing of the Act to administer an oath.
Section 21 of the same Act provides that a person who makes a false statutory declaration under the Act shall be guilty of a mis­ demeanour.
Section 88 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924, authorises peace commissioners to take statutory declarations, and the Unemploy­ ment Assistance (Qualification Certificate Regulations) Order, 1934, mad8 under the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1933, authorises officers of the Minister for Industry and Commerce to take statutory declarations from applicants for unemployment assistance.
The Courts of Justice Act, 1924, and the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1933, however, do not contain any provision making it an offence for a person to make a false statutory declaration before a peace commissioner or an officer of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, and the Minister for Justice is advised that it would not be possible to indict a person under section 21 of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835, for making a false declara­ tion before any person other than the persons authorised by that Act to take statutory declarations.
The main object of the Bill is to remove that anomaly by making it an offence for a person to make a false statutory declaration before any person authorised by law to take statutory declarations, and to provide that that offence shall be triable summarily.

Sections 1 and 12 of the Bill are intended to achieve that object.

Section 2 of the Bill prescribes the procedure to be followed in signing and attesting a statutory declaration.
Section 5 of the Bill authorises notaries public and commissioners for oaths to charge the same fees for taking statutory declarations as they are entitled to charge for taking affidavits.

There is a similar provision in the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835.

Section 7 repeals section 18 of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835, which authorised the taking of statutory declarations generally.
The remainder of the Act is left unrepealed as it deals with the making of declarations in lieu of oaths for specified purposes.

[No.

37 of ’38.]

Wt.

14—51.

600.

11/38.

C.&Co.

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