Statutory Declaration Ireland (Statutory Declarations Act 1938)

In Ireland, the expression has a fixed legal meaning. Section 1(2) of the 1938 Act provides that a statutory declaration, in every statute and statutory instrument, means a declaration made under that section, in the form set out in the Schedule to the Act. Two features follow. The declarant does not swear an oath: he or she "solemnly and sincerely" declares that the facts are true, and closes with the words "I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act 1938". And the document only becomes a declaration once it is signed in front of an authorised person, who then completes and signs the attestation at the foot.

People often confuse it with an affidavit. Both are signed before a commissioner for oaths or a solicitor, and both carry criminal consequences if false, but an affidavit is sworn (or affirmed) and is the normal vehicle for evidence in court proceedings. The declaration is the instrument of everyday administration: the receiving body is a bank, a government department, a club committee or a company secretary, not a judge. Other everyday forms where a plain signature is enough are grouped in our personal legal documents for Ireland.

The governing text is the Statutory Declarations Act 1938, which you can read on the Irish Statute Book page for the Statutory Declarations Act 1938. The amendments matter more than the original text. Section 1(1) lists the persons who may take and receive a declaration: a notary public, a commissioner for oaths, a peace commissioner, a person authorised by law to take statutory declarations, and, since the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, s. 59, a judge of the District Court. A solicitor holding a current practising certificate has all the powers of a commissioner for oaths under section 72 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994, which is why most people simply walk into a local solicitor's office. A member of An Garda Síochána is not on the list, contrary to a common belief.

Procedure was rewritten by the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008. Its section 49 substituted section 2(2): the witness must know you personally, have you identified by someone he or she knows personally, or establish your identity from a photographic relevant document (passport, EU, EEA or Swiss national identity card, or one of the travel documents listed in section 2(4)) and write its particulars into the attestation. Section 50 added section 3A, which validates declarations made abroad, and section 52 replaced the Schedule with the current form. The declarant must sign in the presence of the person taking the declaration, as section 2(1) requires.

Penalties now come from the Criminal Justice (Perjury and Related Offences) Act 2021. Under the new section 6 of the 1938 Act and section 6 of the 2021 Act, making a declaration you know to be false in any material respect is an offence, punishable on indictment by up to ten years' imprisonment (section 12).

The most common request comes after a loss. A duplicate share certificate, a replacement life assurance policy document or a reissued title document is rarely granted on a phone call, so the issuing body asks you to declare when and how the original was lost and that it has not been pledged or transferred. Name changes are frequent too: a bank or pension provider wants confirmation that "Anna Nowak" and "Anna Kowalska" are the same person, with the marriage certificate exhibited. Proof of residence is another classic, where no utility bill covers the full period.

Company work generates its own share of declarations. Directors confirm facts about share registers or lost certificates, and the form then needs the capacity clause; our company and commercial documents for Ireland cover the resolutions and transfers that often travel with it. Property matters are just as frequent. Conveyancing solicitors use declarations to confirm undisturbed possession, the absence of rights of way, or the identity of a seller whose name differs between title documents, alongside the property and tenancy agreements that frame the sale or letting.

The form follows the order of the Schedule and adds only what makes the declaration more reliable in practice.

• The heading cites the 1938 Act, and the "In the matter of" line names the subject in a few words, so a busy bank officer knows at a glance which file it belongs to.
• For an officer of a company, charity or club, a capacity paragraph states the position held, the organisation's name and registered number, and that the facts come from personal knowledge or from the books and records of the body. The board resolution authorising that officer often sits with our nonprofit governance documents.
• Your facts go in a numbered paragraph. In the personal version, paragraph 1 says that any fact outside your own knowledge names its source, the same discipline a court expects in an affidavit, and the purpose clause in paragraph 2 records who will receive the declaration.
• Exhibits, when you attach them, are listed with references such as "SMK1" and described in one line each; the guidance page then adds the endorsement wording that the witness writes on each document.
• At the foot, the attestation reproduces the 2008 Schedule: the witness's name in capitals, his or her capacity, the method of identification (or three tick boxes if you leave it open), the place, a blank date and the witness signature, followed by a detachable page of guidance notes.

You start with your name as it appears on your identity document, your address and your occupation. The next screen asks whether you are declaring in your personal capacity or on behalf of an organisation; choose the second option and the form asks for the body's name, registered number and your position, then adds the capacity paragraph to the text. You then give the subject of the declaration, which fills the "In the matter of" heading, and its purpose, which completes the sentence "I make this declaration for the purpose of...".

The facts screen is a single free text box. Write in the first person, with dates, places and figures, and leave out opinions. If you attach exhibits, you list them on the next screen with their references. The identification step lets you leave the choice to the witness, state that he or she knows you personally, or enter the particulars of your passport or identity card so that the attestation is already complete. Finally, you enter the town where you will sign and, if you know it, the capacity of the person taking the declaration.

Click Finish, complete your order, download the document in Word or PDF, print it, and bring it unsigned to the witness together with your identity document and any exhibits.

The commonest error is signing at home, which means redoing the declaration, because the Act requires the signature to be made in the witness's presence; leave the signature and the date blank until you are in front of the witness. The second is choosing the wrong witness. A friend who is "a solicitor" but no longer holds a practising certificate cannot take it, and a practising solicitor may not exercise these powers in proceedings in which he or she acts for a party or has an interest.

Content causes the rest of the trouble. Declarants write what they hope is true rather than what they know. Because the offence turns on knowledge of falsity in a material respect, say plainly when a fact comes from someone else and who that person is. People also forget to bring the documents they refer to, or bring photocopies that nobody has marked, so the witness cannot endorse them. Others print a general form when the bank had its own prescribed wording (several statutes and public schemes do), which wastes a trip. Finally, check the spelling of your name against your passport: a mismatch between the declaration and the identity document is the quickest way to have the attestation refused.