Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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47. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons within her Department tasked with drafting legislation and their job titles; if legislative drafting is their sole responsibility or if this is in addition to other roles; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6419/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, drafting legislation is the function of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC), which is located in the Office of the Attorney General.

There are two divisions of my Department, the Civil Law Reform Division and the Criminal Law Reform Division, which are primarily tasked with policy analysis and preparation of legislative proposals and schemes of legislation, including drafting instructions for the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in respect of items which are either on the Government legislative programme or contemplated for future Government legislative programmes.

These divisions comprise of 32 staff, details below, in various different areas of expertise, who are involved day-to-day in such work. The relevant staff in these divisions are generally engaged primarily, but not exclusively, on legislative work.

There are also a number of other officers in line divisions of the Department who are involved in similar policy and preparatory work in relation to legislation, where the legislative projects are being handled at line division, rather than law division, level as appropriate.