Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is my determination not to see this important legislation lost and to instead see it passed within the lifetime of this Dáil with all three elements included, reflecting the policy we have discussed at this and previous meetings. All of the work I have undertaken over the past number of weeks has been done to achieve that.

We referred this legislation for drafting in late July. July and August are months when civil servants take leave. I cannot speak to the day-to-day of which drafter was doing what and when – I am not over that amount of detail – or to how many drafters were involved in this particular Bill. My understanding is that it is the practice to keep as few drafters on a Bill as possible because they understand it and that they refer out small but important legal questions to the various legal teams. If different people are coming in and out, important small details could quickly be lost. It is on this basis that this legislation has taken some time. That said, we referred it in late July and we are now in late September. That is two months across the summer period, so it is a tight enough schedule compared with other Bills I have handled. This is a reasonably discrete Bill, but it deals with three very different areas, one of which – the NDAs – is a new frontier in many ways. I reiterate my commitment to having all parts of this legislation legislated for within the lifetime of this Dáil and in line with the policy intent that is set out in the heads and we have discussed.