Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator. Regarding the issue of pre-legislative scrutiny waivers on legislation having been sought numerous times, my recollection is that I have done so three times over the past four years. I am open to correction, but I am thinking through the various Bills we have discussed at this committee. We have had detailed pre-legislative scrutiny sessions, some of which predate the Senator joining the committee, on the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, the Institutional Burials Act 2022 and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022 and have spent long periods going through those key Acts.

Those processes have been very useful, and they have been followed up by subsequent Committee Stages in both Houses. I have seen other Departments regularly use the pre-legislative scrutiny waiver process. I do not believe it has been used regularly in my Department's engagement with this committee. I have always valued the engagement and I can see that some of the major pieces of legislation my Department has passed are stronger on the basis of the pre-legislative scrutiny process undertaken.

We have not received any legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General on the risk of costs, on risk generally on NDAs, or specifically on the matter of costs. The issue in terms of the complexity of drafting-----