Bertie Ahern
Question:6 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the new draftsmen, if any, that have been sanctioned and recruited to the Office of the Attorney General since April 1995. [14951/95]
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers - Recruitment of Parliamentary Draftsmen.
I informed the House on 23 May in reply to a parliamentary question from Deputy O'Dea that a competition, under the Civil Service Commission Act, 1956, to lead to the recruitment of additional draftsmen was being advertised later that week. The competition, which involved both a written element and an interview, was duly advertised on 25 May and has only recently concluded. It is expected that recruitment will commence as soon as possible in accordance with the procedures of the Civil Service Commission.
It is intended to recruit five new Senior Draftsmen from this competition. These will fill the three existing vacancies, at recruitment level, which have resulted from the filling, by internal promotion, of the vacant posts of parliamentary draftsman, assistant parliamentary draftsman and a newly created post at first senior draftsman level as well as two additional posts which have been sanctioned at senior draftsman level. Because of the necessity for a training-in period for the new draftsmen it will be some time before the full benefit from their appointments will be achieved. For this reason, the Government has recently sanctioned the recruitment, on a short-term contract basis, of up to four experienced draftsmen in order to augment the drafting capacity of the Attorney General's office. Although these skills are in short supply worldwide, the Attorney General has already been investigating, with some success, the availability of such expertise in other common law jurisdictions.
Will the Taoiseach tell the House how the throughput of legislation so far this year compares with previous years? Will he agree that one of the main causes of the delay in legislation has been the shortage of staff and lack of modern facilities within the office of the Attorney General? Will he assure the House that, when the new draftsmen are recruited, the matter will be remedied within the office of the Attorny General?
The Deputy will be aware that the introduction of the committee system had led to more rapid passage of legislation in this House. The House can now progress three items of legislation simultaneously. More legislation is being passed than was passed in previous years. I am satisfied that the legislative programme is being effectively proceeded with. I have already answered Question No. 1 from the Deputy about that matter.
We are running out of time, but I take issue with the Taoiseach. I agree that the legislation is passing but whether it is more effective is a good question. The Taoiseach was kind enough to assist the Opposition and the chairman of one of the committees here last week, when our party spokesperson was in the House and a Bill was being debated in a committee room. We should look at whether the committee system is helping. It is certainly helping to get legislation passed, but whether it is helping to get legislation examined is an interesting debating point.
There has been a distinct improvement. I have no doubt the Deputy will agree with that because he was a Member of the Government that agreed to the introduction of the committee system to progress the Committee Stage of Bills. The record shows that the level of scrutiny has improved as a result. The availability of parliamentary draftsmen has been part of the problem in preparing legislation, but much legislation has been debated and passed in this House.
I could not quite catch what the Taoiseach said but I understand him to say there were five draftsmen to be appointed following the competition. There was a senior vacancy in the office of the Attorney General for a considerable period. Has the vacancy been filled from this competition? From where did the four experienced draftsmen recruited on short-term contract come?
We sought contract draftsmen from Australia and Canada; those are the jurisdictions from which they are coming. All the relevant drafting positions will be filled from the competition to which I have referred and I expect that the appointments will be made soon.
On a point of clarification——
Deputy O'Dea has been called and will be heard.
There was a vacancy in one senior position, a position equivalent to departmental Secretary——
I have called Deputy O'Dea. I will not allow any Deputy in this House to impose himself on the Chair.
It would be nice if the Taoiseach answered the question. That is what we are supposed to be here for.
If the Deputy is dissatisfied with the Taoiseach's reply, he has a remedy and the Chair will assist him in that regard.
I have asked a supplementary question.
Has the senior position been filled yet? That report was dated 15 November. It also recommended the appointment of an assistant parliamentary draftsman. Has that been done yet? Is the Taoiseach telling the House that, despite the report dated 15 November recommending that the Office of the Attorney General recruit extra draftsmen, an additional parliamentary draftsman has not yet been recruited and the senior posts have not been filled?
This is not a general question about the office of the Attorney General; it is a question about parliamentary draftsmen and I have answered the question about parliamentary draftsmen. All of the relevant vacant positions are being filled. The senior position to which the Deputies have been referring is not a draftman's position and it has been filled.
We now proceed to deal with Questions nominated for Priority, to which a time limit of 20 minutes applies.