Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be helpful, we do not have the legislation yet. Legally, I cannot give it to the committee until I get the heads of the legislation approved by the Cabinet. I am giving the committee, which is very unusual, a quite detailed briefing note on what will be in the legislation, to ensure I am not doing anything that is inappropriate. I have to get it through the Government. We plan to bring it to the Government in two weeks' time. There are issues that must be followed through, tested, effectively peer reviewed and so forth to ensure that the legislation will work, because it involves change. We anticipate that we will bring the heads of the legislation to Cabinet two weeks hence and the legislation itself the week after that with a view to bringing it to the House on Second Stage subsequently. There is a decent lead-in here. I am not trying to bounce anybody into anything. We must draft it and it must be approved by the Office of the Attorney General. We have legal draftspeople in the Department who have put it together. We must now ensure that it is tested in the Attorney General's office and so forth.