Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Department is embarking on a programme for the consolidation of the entire criminal law, which will be dealt with on a gender-proofed basis because it will be a consolidation of the entire corpus of criminal law. It will afford the Department the opportunity of gender-proofing many of the older enactments which were not gender-proofed at the time. As I said in my initial reply, all new legislation is now gender-proofed. The Long Title to this Bill makes it clear that it is a Bill to amend the Criminal Justice Act 1960. It would be inconsistent of us to simply amend the 1960 Act and gender-proof this legislation without reverting to the principal Act of 1960 and gender-proofing it too. The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel advised us that it would not have the resources to embark on that exercise were it to be a precedent in draftsmanship.

We must be consistent with our draftsmanship because a dialogue takes place between the Oireachtas and the courts as to how legislation is interpreted. If we do not have a consistent system in regard to drafting and if we pick and choose between how Bills are drafted, it is not a good way for us to do our business.