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GAZETTE
A
pril
1989
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
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
Daire Murphy
John Schutte
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.
GAZETT
INCORPORATE D
LAWSOCIETY
OF IRELAND
Vol.83 No.7 July 198
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.
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