Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 March 2021
152. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment 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. [14417/21]
View answerMy Department drafts and produces primary legislation through the process set out in the Cabinet Handbook. This process includes carrying out appropriate consultations with, and/or, where a constitutional issue or issues involving legal policy are likely to be involved, seeking advice from the Office of the Attorney General and seeking Government approval in respect of any principle of the policy to be legislated for which approval has not been already obtained.
The Department prepares a General Scheme in respect of the proposed Bill, made up of individual numbered heads which will set out drafting instructions and a note explaining these instructions. Once this Scheme is prepared, it is circulated to the Department of Finance and any other Department which may be concerned, along with the Office of the Attorney General, for observations. A Regulatory Impact Analysis must also be carried out in line with the Cabinet Handbook. Following these steps, permission to draft the relevant legislation in line with the General Scheme is sought from Government. Legislative proposals are submitted to Oireachtas Committees, as appropriate.
The preparation of legislative text is arranged by the Attorney General on the request of the Department, on foot of Government authority to draft. Parliamentary Counsel, in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to the Government (“OPC”), is assigned to the Bill and is responsible for drafting same on foot of policy instructions provided by the Department. Where any additional/novel policy issue arises during the drafting stage, which it is intended will be provided for in the Bill, further Government approval is obtained in respect of such policy. Further Government approval is required in advance of publication of Heads of Bill. Once the drafting of the Bill has been completed Government approval of the text and authority to present the Bill to the Dáil or Seanad is sought. Communications regarding the drafting of amendments after the initiation of the Bill in either House will be sent to the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government, and no substantive amendments should be finally accepted at Committee or Report Stage without prior consultation with Parliamentary Counsel to ensure that no unintended consequences will arise.
In respect of the drafting of secondary legislation, the OPC also plays a role in drafting or settling instruments which commence primary legislation, amend primary legislation, instruments which are to be made by the Government, and those to be made by some other body where so requested by a Minister of Government or Minister of State operating relevant the statutory function for approval of the draft instrument.
Since I took office in June 2020, there has been one instance where my Department outsourced the drafting of legislation to an external barrister. This related to drafting of the Employment Permits (No.2) Regulations 2020. The cost of this contract was €453.75.
