Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I apologise to the Senator. He wants to insert the word "perfection" rather than "making". This point was considered during the drafting phase of the Bill but section 5(3) refers to the "making of the order" containing the declaration of incompatibility rather than the "perfection of the order" for purely practical reasons. This is because there may be a period between the making of the order and its perfection or, to use another term, writing it down. In some cases, this period could be up to six weeks. The Government's intention is that the making of the declaration should be notified to the Oireachtas at the earliest possible opportunity. The Attorney General is a notice party to the proceedings. Therefore, the Government has, within the knowledge of its legal adviser, knowledge of the proceedings. We see no reason to change this.

Were the concept of perfection to be used, the obligation to lay the matter before the Oireachtas would be relaxed rather than strengthened. We take the view that there should be a strict duty to account to the Oireachtas in this matter and that the Government, having been represented in the proceedings by the Attorney General, should be in a position, within the relevant period after the making of the decision, to lay the matter before it.