New Act format

From Easter 2012, Bills and Acts will be published in a new format. The new format has been designed by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government, to streamline and enhance the readability of Bills and Acts. The main difference in appearance is text appearing wider on the page. The basic structure of Bills and Acts will remain the same, except that 'sidenotes' to sections will now appear as cross-headings above them. A list of the differences between the current and the new format and a sample of the new format (using random content from a previously published Finance Bill) is provided in the linked PDF files below.

List of differences

New format sample