Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for setting out the reasoning behind this proposal which has been passed by the Dáil where it was thoroughly examined. As the Minister of State said, while this may not be the sexiest Bill to come before the House in a generation or so, it is important. Not only is it a tool for practitioners of law, its applications in court have a direct effect on everyone's civil rights and on the interpretations of decisions and decisions given by the courts. In his introductory remarks the Minister of State referred to the sections as set out in Part 4. It is interesting in looking at this to note the definitions given in section 18(h) to "periods of time" and in section 18(i) to "time". Those issues had a serious impact on the way in which the courts dealt with the question of when warrants can be served and their effects, in connection with another matter in the past month. This is important and we should go through it rigorously on Committee Stage. My party supports this Bill and will go through it as comprehensively as possible.

There is a real problem in the Oireachtas in terms of the processing of legislation by Members on all sides. Our committee system is not working as it should. It is Executive driven because the Government of the day always has a majority. Only the lead spokespersons for the Opposition parties attend the committee meetings. We should engage ordinary Members on all sides in much greater scrutiny of legislation; that applies to all Bills that come before the House. We have far too many ministerial orders, statutory instruments and secondary legislative mechanisms within our legal system. Too often neither House scrutinises ministerial decisions, which is a shame. If one compares the number of Bills produced 50 years ago with the number produced today, it is probably only a fraction.