Professor John FitzGerald:

There are specific things in the Bill. We will give written evidence on that after the council has considered it. For example, where the Minister has to come back and consult with the council, if there is a large amount of toing and froing between us and we must comment on everything. This has been a problem for the council which has a small secretariat, but also for the council itself where there are people serving in a part-time capacity, meeting once every one or two months and it must consider every policy document, with the Government producing an awful lot of documents. One cannot give enough time to it. It is about being focused on where the council can most make an impact.

Where it sees something in policy that it feels is appropriate or it wants to offer advice, the council has the freedom to intervene. However, requiring us to intervene at every stage in, for example, the legislative process would not make sense. There are one or two cases in the Bill that we will revert on where there is a danger of overload for the council. It is not the intention of the Oireachtas to do so. Rather, I believe it is being done by accident. We must take the law seriously and follow it. If it contains too many prescriptive measures about the stages we are on to be consulted on, it could pose problems.