Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand where the Minister of State is coming from and I am not a million miles away from his position. We have had discussions on the need for reviews. The charities legislation was passed circa 2005. My problem is that parts of it were commenced only last year. This meant it was very difficult to review legislation that was not in operation. I acknowledge that the Minister of State is committed to ensuring that this Bill, when passed, will become operational. This is all I am trying to capture. I hope that, in the two-year period, as many of the legislation's problems as possible will have been identified. Thus, after the first review, we will be able to produce amending legislation to address the problems. I realise how slowly the courts and other institutions work and therefore believe that, at the end of the two-year period, we will not have fully identified all the relevant issues. However, the Minister's existing wording does not prevent us from having our own review. I have outlined what my amendment is intended to capture.

I will examine this again. Deputy Ryan proposed that the committee be central to the process. Perhaps it should be. Deputy Humphreys is the Minister of State at present but one could end up with the Minister who wants everything for himself in respect of the review. If it is specified in law that the committee will carry out the review on behalf of the Minister and that the Minister should report back to the committee, it might be useful. I will consider this for Report Stage. I am often concerned that the Houses are sometimes not included and that committees are not recognised. The committee works. We have proved ourselves at this committee. Everybody here and all those who have made a presentation to us have proven that the committee system works for legislation. It could serve Ministers better if they used it for reviews. Committees could hold hearings and give Ministers more time to do other work.