Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. This is quite a complex area and, given the number of documents with which we are dealing, it is difficult to see how we are measuring fully the performance outputs. In OECD terms, we are quite low down in ensuring we have a proper monitoring system or accounting by the Government to committees. It is there but I have found in the past number of years that when we come to this part, there is often a shortage of time, although it is a welcome development that we are at least starting to address these issues in time.

We need to get into the nuts and bolts of the Department. For example, this sheet, which is quite a colourful sheet, is on the Department's website. It outlines targets and when they were achieved. The Minister is quite correct in stating that many of those targets which have not been achieved concern processing times - this is something that needs to be considered - but there are a number which are within the Department's gift. The question for us, as parliamentarians, is why the Department has not moved more quickly. Why has it not managed to deliver? We need to ensure that the targets the Department sets can be reviewed by us every year from now on and that we can hold it to account if they are not met.

There may be some practical reasons. For example, we had the Gender Recognition Bill and I thank the Minister for her recognition of the work of the committee in that regard. This was one of the better experiments, for want of a better word, in terms of legislation, especially complex legislation. If one goes back to 2011, a very short timeframe might have been set for the passing of the Gender Recognition Bill-----