Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As soon as we can but we want to ensure we give the advice due consideration. We are all aware of the time pressure concerning this legislation, and not just for this element but for the fertiliser element, which we will discuss later. That directly impacts on farmers in respect of the range of options they will have, for the eco schemes that they can join and all the rest.

The legislation is very much in the hands of the committee in terms of the pre-legislative scrutiny and in the hands of Members of the Oireachtas as to how legislation passes through the two Houses and goes through those phases. The Department must ensure, when we come back with our adjudication on the latest legal opinion, that we can say hand on heart that we have gone over the legal opinion with a fine-tooth comb and analysed it inside out and ensured that we have looked at it in every way and if there is a way it can be accepted and integrated then great but, if not, we want to be able to say that we have gone through it in that way. We received the legal opinion last week and I assure the Deputy that we are working hard and fast to ensure that we go through it. We are doing that work with an element of wanting to make sure that we do it speedily we are not going to rush our work to the extent that we do not give this the due consideration that it deserves.