Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

If a Department is proposing legislation in terms of a statutory instrument, then the key issue, the gap and the space where this committee was designed to sit - a space now being encroached upon by what I believe is this overreach in terms of the advice from the Attorney General - relates to the process between a proposed statutory instrument and a new statutory instrument that is law. The gap is between a Bill and an Act. Yes, back and forth may happen, and it may well be privileged in terms of the drafting of a Bill, but a Bill is nonetheless published and is subject to a process of parliamentary scrutiny before it becomes an Act. The Bill that is published, whether or not it reflects advice that may have come from the Office of Parliamentary Counsel is published by and is therefore a proposal from the Government and the relevant Department at the time. Given that the Government is proposing the Bill, similarly, the proposed statutory instrument, that is, the instrument about be signed, potentially, by a Minister, is proposed by the Government. That document, the one in between, which may reflect, as a Bill reflects, the advice of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, is a proposed statutory instrument. What we are being told, effectively, is "No, you can only see Acts".