Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

On the legislation, as for the adoption Bill, a significant policy issue was raised during the summer months that was brought to a conclusion last week and technical amendments to the Bill are ongoing. One hopes this Bill will be published this term.

I made the point that the nursing homes support scheme Bill is nearly finalised. It is intended to be brought before the Houses in the current Dáil session. As for the child care Bill, during the summer recess work continued on drafting of the Bill to resolve points arising from significant legal and technical issues that had emerged during the drafting and accompanying consultation processes. Further consultation took place to assist that process and, in addition, legal advice on specific complex issues were formulated, sought and obtained. As a result, several significant sets of instructions were sent to the Attorney General's office and new draft versions of the Bill were produced, resolving many of those issues. It is expected that having resolved some of those issues, the Government will be able to proceed with publication in the next term.

See this speech in context