Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach seems to be saying that where primary legislation was contracted out, work was done up to heads of Bill stage and the drafting then done in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. Can the Taoiseach be more clear? He has expressed the matter in one way. Another way of putting it would be to say the quality of the outside work is not up to scratch and that the drafting must be done by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. That is my understanding of the position.

Regarding the Finance Bill to which I referred, I am informed by Deputy Burton that the cost of contracting out its drafting came to €1.5 million. That is quite a mind-blowing figure for a single Bill, no matter how substantial or complex. If the Taoiseach agrees with the Office of the Attorney General that there should be a coherence of style and uniformity, it would be desirable that his writ should run with line Departments.

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