Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The number of Bills introduced in the past two years was 42 and 38. That is a high number as against many other parliaments — I have seen that chart. It is not the case that the workload or throughput here was not high in the last Dáil. There were over 208 Bills, approximately 40 a year — that is the average — so we are covering a large amount of legislation.

Private Members' Bills, when they are focused on and confined to a certain area, can be very helpful. In the case of a large Bill the Parliamentary Counsel will find an enormous number of inconsistencies because the drafters cannot have available the chronological tables and database that the Attorney General's office and the Parliamentary Counsel has to check and cross-check. The green copy tends to have a huge number of inconsistencies. I understand that and it is not to say people are not trying their best. Even when Departments are trying to prepare Bills or in the case of an outside contract, if the legislation was to go through in that form it would be extremely faulty. I have heard probably ten Attorneys General give that advice over the years so we must be cautious about that.

Other parliaments try to have more discussion when Private Members' Bills are brought forward by members. That is not bad but if the concept or some of the work is useful they have to go back to be proofed. I have not seen a Bill produced that could go right through the system, except in the case of a very short Bill on a moot point. There is usually a lot of work involved in any substantive legislation, even from outside draftsmen or departmental Parliamentary Counsel. The Parliamentary Counsel have that specialist knowledge and perhaps they would always say that, but it has been the case that they have to proof it.

See this speech in context