The Gazette 1989

GAZETT INCORPORATE D LAWSOCIETY OF IRELAND Vol.83 No.7 July 198

A pril 1989

GAZETTE

In this Issue Viewpoint New Laws for Co-Ops President's Column Practice Note C.L.A.S.P. Dancing with Dinosaurs Younger Members News CCBE News People and Places X-Rays and the Law Interview with Chief Justice Diary Insurance Consultancy & Risk Management Professional Information

Viewpoint The announcement by the Government's Chief Whip that a number of Bills which had not completed their passage through the Dail prior to its dissolution, would be reintroduced is welcome. While the Dail did put a number of Bills through their final stages prior to dissolution there still remained a significant number of Bills which went back to square one. Some of the Bills which fell were of con- siderable social and public importance including the Child Care Bill, the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendmen t) Bill and most disappointing of all the Building Control Bill. This Bill, first introducted in 1984, is to give statutory force to the New Building Regulations and follows on the report of the Stardust Tribunal. Even the "rushing through" of the later stages of the Bills is an unsatisfactory part solution to the problem, the effect being that the Committee stages at which Bills should be subject to line by line review by the Deputies must clearly be skimped in many cases. It cannot be simply argued that Bills should retain the status which they had at the dissolution of a Dail since Bills must be seen to be instruments of Government policy and on four recent occasions on which the Dail has been dissolved a Government of a different political outlook to the previous Government has been returned. The question does arise however as to whether it is necessary that there should be so many Bills at so many different stages of progress through the Dail. If all the stages of a Bill could be taken within a relatively short space of time then on any sudden dissolution of the Dail there would not be likely to be many casualties. It is of course

accepted that the Department re- sponsible for the introduction of a Bill must be given an opportunity to consider observations made by Deputies at the Second stage of Bills and to give detailed con- sideration to amendments put down for the Committee stage. However it must be doubted whether the long gaps which seem to arise between the Second stages and Committee stages need necessarily be quite so extensive. A different solution to the diffi- culty could involve the use of an American "Commi t t ee S t y l e" method of processing legislation. Under this a draft Bill would be available for discussion in advance by a specialist Sub Committee of the Dail and/or Seanad so that what are now the Committee stages of Bills could be dealt with at a much earlier stage, ensuring rapid passage of the legislation through the Oireachtas once it had been reported out of the Sub Committee. A further advantage of this system would be that interested parties would be able to make re- presentations to the Committees in advance of the crystallization of the legislation. In our present system Bills tend to be regarded as being "cast in stone" at their introduction stage and it takes considerable effort to effect significant changes in them. Even when the need for significant changes is accepted it is usually a cause of considerable delay in the legislative process, witness the Companies Bill which is another of the significant measures which fell with the Dail. It is time for a hard look to be taken by our Parliamentarians at the efficiency and efficacy of the legis- lative process in the Oireachtas. • 223

Cover Photo: (left to right): Rory McEntee, Chairman of The Law Socie- ty's Conveyancing Committee, Maeve Hayes, Solicitor, Chairman of the Sub- Committee on Undertakings, and Stewart MacKinnon, Manager, Irish Banks Standing Committee. Executive Editor: Mary Gaynor Committee: Geraldine Clarke, Chairman Eamonn G. Hall, Vice-Chairman John F. Buckley Gary Byrne Patrick McMahon Charles R. M. Meredith Advertising: Seán Ó hOisín. Telephone: 305236 307860 Printing: Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford. The views expressed in this publication, save where otherwise indicated, are the views of the contributors and not necessarily the views of the Council of the Society. The appearance of an advertisement in this publication does not necessarily indicate approval by the Society for the product or service advertised. Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. Tel.: 710711. Telex: 31219. Fax: 710704. Daire Murphy John Schutte