Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy has raised three separate points. The internal review has been published and is publicly available for anybody with an interest in the issue. People may well have views on it. I have access to it because it has been published and was made available to the Department and everyone else. It has come up with some important findings and there are two levels at which action can be taken. The first level is internal and I understand that a number of measures have been put in place by the chairman. Those can be done internally without any changes to the statute or regulation. It seems inevitable to me that, arising from the findings of that report, some changes will have to be considered and will probably have to be implemented when the legislative review is under way. This may well result in the entire legislation being revisited, rather than secondary legislation. Both may be considered but that is not yet clear.

The Deputy will appreciate that there is no requirement for any Minister to bring an issue of this nature to the committee. I am doing so as a courtesy to the House and because I believe that secondary legislation in many instances has an importance that, at a minimum, should see it being placed before a committee. That is the reason I am doing it, although of course I am not required to do so. I hope people will have an input at that stage, however.

With regard to the timescale, I have said previously that this is an opportunity to get this right, particularly if it is the case that primary legislation will have to be revisited. A few extra weeks will be important in order to assimilate the views of all the related stages.

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