Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have asked a simple question of principle. I am being told it cannot be answered because the Minister of State has not looked at practical examples. In setting out the Attorney Genera's advice, she stated the following:

Unless and until a Minister makes the regulation, every iteration of the draft regulation, stamped or unstamped, is subject to legal professional privilege and cannot be provided to the committee. Only the regulations when made by a Minister can be provided to the committee, apart from the initial draft prepared by the Department, as I stated earlier.

That is what the Minister of State has told the committee today. I am saying that if that is correct, it means no Minister who goes to an outside body and tells it what he or she is proposing to do can be acting lawfully. Presumably, if Ministers are prohibited from showing such a document to us, they are prohibited from showing it to a sectoral organisation.