Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the review, this is going to set up a court procedure and that will take time. The reality is that within a year, there will be very little to examine or on which to carry out a study. It will take a little time to see what the outworking of this legislation is. It will probably take two or perhaps three years before we will be able to have a review which would have any substance and would be able to examine a number of cases that would have passed through the preliminary process. If we do it within a year, all we would be doing is examining the legislation we have passed rather than examining its implementation. Deputy Pringle is probably correct. We need to push it out a little. While I understand that in normal situations one would pass legislation and examine it after a year, in this case it is the working of the legislation, its implications and how well it has worked or not that has to be examined. That will take a period of time. Perhaps the three years would be an appropriate time in that respect.