Vol. 533 No. 5
3 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development when it is proposed to set up a legal unit within his Department; the staff it is proposed to allocate to the unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7872/01]
The Civil Service Commission is in the process of completing the arrangements for the appointment of the head of the new legal services division of my Department. A number of existing staff with appropriate qualifications and experience will be transferred to the new division when the head is appointed and it is envisaged that additional staff will be recruited or assigned in due course.
The primary function of the legal services division will be to provide the Minister and the Department with legal advice on litigation and the development of schemes operated by the Department. The work of the legal services division will complement the legal advisory services provided by the office of the Attorney General and is being set up with the agreement of the Attorney General's office. Given the large number and the complex nature of the schemes operated by my Department, it is essential the Department has an in-house legal advisory service. Also, the Department is currently involved in more than 200 cases of litigation, including a large number of prosecutions that I have initiated. These cases cover areas such as animal health and welfare, ERAD, export refunds, intervention operations, and the rural environment protection scheme.
The management services division of my Department has recently completed a review of the current functions and organisation of the former Land Commission. That report recommends that all divisions of the former Land Commission, with the exception of the inspectorate and surveyors branch, should be brought under the control of the legal services division. The divisions involved are the solicitors branch, the land services division, the records branch and the collection branch.
There are currently 57 staff employed in these divisions and placing all or some of these work areas under the control of the head of the legal services division would substantially broaden the remit of the unit. The management services division report on the former Land Commission will be considered by the management advisory com mittee of my Department shortly with a view to taking final decisions on these issues.
Ten years after the demise of the Land Commission we are still at it. Can I take it that it is getting a new growth? Is one of the primary reasons for setting up the new legal services division in the Department that the AG's office cannot handle the current level of litigation cases? Will the powers of the old Land Commission be vested in the legal services division of the Minister's Department? Will the new unit take on board the fact that thousands of bog holders and landholders do not currently have full title to their farms?
The unit is being set up for a number of purposes. Given that the Department has a number of very complex schemes, it must draw up statutory instruments under these schemes to ensure they are legally soundly based. There is also a substantial amount of legislation in place and in the old days the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government held up legislation considerably. It considerably expedites legislation to have a great deal of the initial work done in the Department. There are more than 200 litigation cases to be dealt with by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. While the old Land Commission has been gone for more than a decade, many of the staff are still in the Department. The solicitors branch and the legal services branch of the Land Commission will now work neatly into this section and carry out much of the work outlined by the Deputy.
