Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I have been waiting to contribute on this matter which was highlighted in newspapers yesterday. Following from that I telephoned Ms Lane, the Clerk of the Seanad, who advised me to telephone the Office of the Attorney General. In the course of my investigations I learned yesterday that Matheson Ormsby Prentice had drafted the Bill. A Minister is entitled to bring a Bill to an outside body, although it is very rarely done and I never did so. In pursuit of his duty, the Attorney General must stamp each Bill which comes before Cabinet and he duly stamped the Bill at a late stage. I am also of the belief that this is a clear error. That is not to cast any slight upon Matheson Ormsby Prentice; its workers are not draftsmen from the office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel but an outside firm of solicitors. We want this point to be publicised.

It is clear there is a deficiency and I say this in sadness rather than anger. This bears out what I said yesterday about the legislation being deficient and faulty, although no doubt we will all be drummed into the lobbies to support it. One of the scant duties we have is to scrutinise legislation. It gives me no joy to say that the legislation is deficient and faulty in section 12(12). The cross reference is to the 1998 Act which I introduced. I took out the Act and studied it this morning to check the reference. It is a drafting error by the well-known firm, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, which I am sure it would accept. I did not contact the firm because that is not my job but I will when the Bill is passed. This error makes the legislation both deficient and faulty.

I know a lot about the Minister, Deputy Brennan, and he knows a lot about me. We could each make known a great deal of information about each other and that would go on for ever, although not in my case. Anyway, we will see. We have all of that in common. A fault can occur in any Bill. Even draftsmen of the greatest experience can make a drafting fault. There is a difficulty in that we are not empowered because the Minister must go back to the Dáil. I would like him to listen to this point, please. If we know there is a drafting error and the Minister does not want to go back to the Dáil, where does that leave us? If the staff of Departments and other offices to which I have referred, some of whom I have spoken to, know in their heart of hearts that the error which has been discovered is a genuine drafting error, is it not better to leave it?

We should be satisfied that we have a proper Bill. If one is a "not-content", as they say in the House of Lords, is it not better that the particular drafting error should be addressed now, rather than the Bill being challenged after it has been passed by the House? I repeat that the legislation is deficient and faulty. As Leader of the House, I have a right to point that out.