Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As I said in my reply, some 15 additional staff have been taken on. We have some very able Irish drafters, but there are difficulties when someone is on maternity or special leave as, unlike many other posts, one cannot easily find experienced people. I agree that we should at all times endeavour to have our own draftspeople, and it is to be hoped that the extra staff will help.

I will not go into too much detail as this information is provided with the answer. The three largest sums paid last year were €168,526, €144,911 and €115,904, respectively. We have been using contract drafters for many years. There are normally between four and six in any one year, and other payments tend to be small, depending on the length of the person's employment. We have been lucky, since the House now passes 70 or 80 Bills each year, and without contract drafters we would never be able to keep abreast of the workload.

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