Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is good to be here this morning. I welcome our guests. The last time I attended this committee, which was over MS Teams, I was quite taken aback by the lack of answers I got on where the Bill was at. I want to put that in the context that the Minister had promised that a Bill would be introduced by March last year. It is very clear from the opening statement and the work of this committee that Mr. O'Connor and his team are very much engaged in this process and I want to acknowledge that. I welcome that. I really want to recognise the work of the committee because it is clear that the committee has engaged directly with the officials and asked key pertinent questions and the officials have provided us with some good, clear answers today on some of the matters around issues including curtilage. It is very welcome that they will revise the Bill to include all potential providers. The officials have given some answers in relation to warnings. However, like Senator Conway who just spoke and others, I have concerns around the timeline. I also understand that there is only so much the officials can say on that. What would be helpful to me, and I am a guest here, as we end the meeting, would be if the officials could clarify the outstanding issues which they say they need to bottom-out with the OPC. Can they give a simple list of what the outstanding legal issues are because that would help to clarify for us where the Department is at and what the timeline might be?