The Library & Research Service has published a study of the impact of pre-legislative scrutiny on legislative and policy outcomes. The study was commissioned by the L&RS and written by Dr. Shane Martin, Professor of Government at University of Essex.
The research empirically assesses the impact of pre-legislative scrutiny (PLS) on legislative outcomes, and through this, on policy outcomes, since its introduction to the Irish Parliament. It found a high level of engagement with general schemes of Bills. Committees made 467 unique recommendations over 50 cases of PLS in the 31st Dail. It found that in the 31 cases where a Bill had subsequently been published, 146 of the 350 recommendations made by Committees were taken on board by the Minister.
Pre-legislative scrutiny is the process whereby Ministers publish and refer the General Scheme of a Bill to the relevant Oireachtas Committee for scrutiny prior to the formal drafting of a Bill. As part of the endeavour to strengthen the role of parliament, pre-legislative scrutiny was introduced to the legislative process in the Houses of the Oireachtas, tentatively in 2011, substantially in November 2013, and confirmed by the 32nd Dáil on the recommendation of the Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform in 2016.