Vol. 457 No. 8
85 Mr. O'Donoghue asked the Taoiseach the reason for the appointment of Australians and Canadians to posts as parliamentary draftsmen in the Office of the Attorney General, particularly in view of the lengthy training period necessary for non-nationals. [15889/95]
It is precisely because of the lengthy training-in period for parliamentary draftsmen who are recruited to permanent posts — and as I informed the House on 17 October 1995, a competition has recently been held for the recruitment of five new draftsmen — that it is necessary to recruit experienced draftsmen on a short-term contract basis. A number of potential candidates have been identified in other common law jurisdictions, including Canada and Australia, and their suitability is in the course of being evaluated at present. These are very senior persons who already have many years experience of drafting legislation and their experience is itself a valuable training resource for the new permanent draftsmen who are due to take up employment in the Office of the Attorney General.
Legislative drafting at its most complex is a highly skilled activity. There is not a sufficient pool of retired draftsmen in this jurisdiction from which to recruit persons on contract, hence the requirement to draw them from other jurisdictions with a similar legislative framework.
