Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In answer to the Deputy's first question, some Departments have people with experience and expertise in drafting legislation, which is very helpful in the preparation of Bills, particularly in areas such as social welfare and tax law. In these areas, some Bills appear in the same format every year, so they are not as complex and difficult to draft as, for example, a Finance Bill or the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill to which I referred earlier. There is some expertise in the Departments. However, the Attorney General and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel will always say that even when a Bill is outsourced, it must be returned to them so they can check for consistency and ensure legal certainty. That has always been the case. They are not prepared to sign off legislation that has not been cleared by them to their satisfaction. I am not saying the work done in the Departments is not helpful, but even when the work is done by others the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and the Attorney General must be able to stand over it. If there are challenges, difficulties or problems, it is their responsibility.

Although I stated earlier that 109 Bills were enacted in the last Dáil, the total was actually 209 Bills. Much of the ongoing work of preparation and amendment of Bills during their passage through both Houses of the Oireachtas is done at short notice by the parliamentary draftspeople. Much of the legislation promised for the last session is technical and complicated and will require considerable legal checking. The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill took a large amount of time to prepare.

Quite a lot of legislation is coming in, including two statute law revision Bills which have been dealt with in recent times. Over the past few weeks, we have passed a few Bills each week in Cabinet. Sometimes there are delays within Departments due to debates on policy issues that arise when Bills have been partially drafted or items that must be checked against previous legislation. Some of these prove quite complex. As I mentioned last week, the long-stay residential care Bill regarding the elderly raised legal questions and constitutional issues to do with property rights and these must be teased out. This takes time. It is not that anybody is delaying the process — it is just that the issues must be dealt with before moving on to the next stage.

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