Deputy O'Keeffe's amendment is essentially about imposing a deadline on the registrar. I sought to include a not dissimilar amendment in the Bill in discussion with the parliamentary draftsman. I was advised, however, that such a time limit as Deputy O'Keeffe suggests, would not be appropriate in this part of the Bill. The point was made to me that time limits were appropriate where the registrar was discharging administrative functions. However, where the registrar was discharging a judicial function — the essential distinction we seek to make here is between administrative and judicial — the parliamentary draftsman, supported by the Attorney General's office, advised that time limits should not be inserted. They refer to the fact that, as a general principle, the courts are given a wide latitude to reach their decisions without artificial limits being imposed.
In the case of this section, what is involved is the registrar deciding whether a separate corporate entity should be established. The view of the parliamentary draftsman was that this was a judicial function of the registrar and a time limit on his decision in this case would not be appropriate. I regret I cannot accept the amendment, although I had a similar view. We submitted something to the parliamentary draftsman's office but his view was that a distinction must be drawn between discharging administrative and judicial functions.
