Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would be interested to hear the explanation of the Minister in respect of why this provision is now so important as to merit inclusion in the Bill but it was not contained in an earlier general scheme of the judicial review legislation. It has come out of nowhere, whereas we have a general sense of what the previous Government and the officials were working towards in terms of the judicial review process. I ask the Minister to explain why this reform is suddenly more important than the others and why it has to be introduced more quickly than the others.

The Minister might also explain the following point. My understanding is that the Government does not introduce any kind of legislation unless it has a reason for doing so, and it does not just introduce legislation speculatively. Therefore, the real question is what is the reason for this, and, again, the Minister has not asked it. For the third and final time, I will press him. I presume somebody somewhere thinks this is going to be necessary and, therefore, that is why it is here, not in the appropriate place, which is the judicial review Bill we are going to deal with early next year.