Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

In the interests of transparency, the Minister made the policy announcement as to what direction the Government would take in regard to this matter in his Supplementary Budget Statement. We have said the heads of the Bill will be prepared in the coming weeks. The agency will be put on a statutory basis. In the meantime, and quite properly, preparations are being made so that when the legislation is enacted, the agency will become operational immediately thereafter and will get on with its business, including assessing the situation in regard to the logistical questions. Human resources and recruitment processes must be worked out.

One can do nothing, wait for the legislation to be enacted and then spend more time going off to get people or one can do that in the meantime and ensure that when the agency is given statutory authority, it can get on with its business. That is what is happening and what happens when any organisation is set up. That is how we will proceed. There is no mystery about it. When we debate the legislation in the House, we will be able to debate all these issues.

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