Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct. The primary purpose of these post-enactment reviews is to enable us to demonstrate clearly whether an Act has been implemented in the way originally envisaged and whether it is doing what it was designed to do. This is a very valuable process. Post-enactment reports were not required before 2011. As part of the political reform agenda, the Government aspires to implement a process of post-enactment scrutiny for all legislation. The programme for Government contains a commitment to supporting post-enactment review of legislation by Oireachtas committees. This reiterates the previous Government's commitment to the concept. While there is no single approach to undertaking this type of scrutiny, there is some consensus that its primary purpose is to ascertain whether the legislation, usually an Act, has achieved the original policy objectives.

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