Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I note that in the legislative programme for September 2003, the judicial conduct and ethics Bill was promised and the Taoiseach undertook that it would be enacted in 2004. I do not think anybody inside this House or outside it reading this morning's newspapers or listening to the news headlines can be in any doubt about the real urgency that attaches to this Bill. The Minister has said he has a very heavy legislative programme and I notice that the judicial council Bill is now promised on the C list to be published in 2007. It was first promised in 2001 and the Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, will be able to advise the Minister, Deputy Cowen, on why it was withdrawn in the context of Nice I in 2001. Six years later all that has changed is the name. It is now called the judicial council Bill.

Can I ask the Minister for Finance whether anything can be done to bring forward this Bill? Surely that is the primary task of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform rather than casting envious eyes on the job of the Minister for Finance and telling him how to do it in terms of taxation. From reading the newspapers this morning it is clear that there is an urgency about this Bill. It might have been enacted by now. A commitment was made that it would be enacted in 2004. Can anything be done to bring forward this legislation?

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