Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1075. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the details of the process through which his Department drafts and produces legislation; if his Department outsources the drafting of legislation; if so, the Bills for which the drafting was outsourced since he took office; and the costs associated with the drafting of each Bill. [14414/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department follows the guidance for preparing legislation as set in the Cabinet Handbook. Following approval of a legislative proposal by Government, the Department prepares the General Scheme and Heads of Bill for submission to Government for approval. The draft text of the Bill is then prepared by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel with input from Department officials. The draft Bill is submitted to Government for approval prior to its publication.

Since I took office, the Department has been provided with external legal assistance in relation to the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another matter, Act 2020 (No. 20 of 2020) at a cost of €2,800. This entailed working with officials to identify options and legislative solutions to protect the Commission’s database and ensure it could be made available for information and tracing purposes.  As part of this work, the external legal expert engaged with officials on the development of an initial draft Heads of Bill.   

My Department is currently preparing draft legislation in relation to birth information and tracing, with assistance from legal experts nominated by the Attorney General. In this case, officials of my Department have been working intensively on the policy and practical details relating to the legislation, with a view to having Heads of Bill available shortly. In order to assist matters, the Attorney General has assigned a number of legal experts on various aspects of the legislation to assist in drafting the Heads of Bill.  They are working closely with my Department in accordance with the policy instructions prepared by my Department. This approach brings the benefit of valuable inputs from leading legal experts in the field, while my Department still retains responsibility for leading on and taking responsibility for the overall legislative proposals.