Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

We need a thread of consistency in that regard. We must streamline the situation but sometimes the argument becomes circular.

Regarding the Bills published so far this year, there was a large number of them compared with recent full years. In 2005 there were 28; 42 in 2006; 38 in 2007; 33 in 2008; and to date in 2009 41 have been published. Some long, complex Bills including the NAMA legislation and other financially related legislation have been included in that. The throughput has been exceptional given the complexity of the legislation. We sometimes look at volumes of legislation without considering whether Bills are simple or complex in scope. The NAMA legislation has rightly taken up a huge amount of time as a priority and the Attorney General and his office have been outstanding in seeking to bring all that together, with others, including the National Treasury Management Agency.

On the other issues the Deputy raised, those are usually dealt with by licensing arrangements and can be dealt with in that way.

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