Dr. Conor O'Mahony:

On the medium term, I am sensitive to the issues expressed by colleagues about the logistical challenges they face and respect their position. At the same time, we have to try to remember the background and context of all of this, in terms of how long it is taken to get to this point. In some cases, the clock is ticking for people who want to access information. Very long lead-in times sometimes make me nervous, if we think about the legislative process and about how long it will take to get from pre-legislative scrutiny, through to the actual enactment and signing into law of this Bill and then through to commencement of the Bill. We must not forget that there can often be a delay between something being signed by the President and then commenced by the relevant Minister. The clock starts ticking again on a lead-in time period.

What occurs to me in my experience is that I started my legal career working on issues around special educational needs, SEN, law. I wrote my PhD on the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. It was enacted 17 years ago and has still not been commenced by the relevant Minister. This partially happened because that Act was enacted with a long lead-in time. Then, things on the ground changed and it never came into effect. Long lead-in times, therefore, make me nervous, because of that particular experience with that legislation. If a little bit more time than three months is needed, I would defer to my colleagues' view on how long they might need. However, I would urge the importance of avoiding going too far with that. I would also emphasise that the gap between enactment and commencement may afford a window of time during which preparatory work can be done to get everything in place, so that they can make the best use of the time following commencement.