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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER
1989
From the President . . .
In its r ecen t ly p r omu l ga t ed
programme, the new Government
has included as an important
heading, Law Reform. In the last
edition of this Gazette, Eamonn
Hall, in reviewing the Law Reform
Commission's 10th Report, stated
that the most powerful source of
Law Reform is that of general
public opinion. He also commented
t ha t the layman and many
politicians are not interested in
lawyers' law. Hopefully, the new
Government's approach may prove
that there has been a change of
heart in this respect and certainly
it is a change that is long overdue.
As I understand it in the field of
Law Reform, the main parties
involved are the Law Reform Com-
mission, the Department of Justice
and the Attorney General and
through him the Parliamentary
Draughtsmen. By 31st December,
1988 the Law Reform Commission
had formulated and submitted to
the Taoiseach 27 Reports con-
taining proposals for reform of the
law as well as 11 Working Papers,
a Consultation Paper and 10 Annual
Reports. The number of recom-
mendations contained in those
reports that have been enacted into
law is depressingly few.
Various reasons can be advanced
to explain why this is so. Amongst
them being Public Service cutbacks
which means that where previously
there were ten Civil Servants of
Assistant Principal or higher rank
dealing with the subject of Law
Reform, there are now five, and a
serious and continuing shortage of
experienced Parliamentary Draughts-
men. (I understand that the drafting
of legislation only continues at its
present pace by the employment
on contract of three retired Parlia-
mentary Draughtsmen). Apparently
it takes three to five years to train
Draughtsmen fully so the scope of
the potential problem is very clear.
Added to this we have a Parliament
which appears to sit less days per
year than almost any other Parli-
ament in Europe. All in all, not a
happy combination of circum-
stances.
It seems obvious to us lawyers
that all the Government pro-
grammes in the world cannot be
brought to fruition if the personnel
are not available to convert these
programmes into legislation. Thus
it seems to me extraordinary that
the dogma of fiscal rectitude
should be applied so indiscrimin-
ately as to deprive the Executive
and the Legislature of one
necessary instrument, namely the
drafters of legislation, that is
indispensable for the making of
law.
This may be an area in which we
as a profession have failed to make
our views clear and to urge
sufficiently strongly upon Govern-
ment how crucially important it is
in the modern world, that the pace
of change in our Society and the
urgent necessity to conform to
European standards in many areas
of society, be not hindered by a
ramshackle outdated system for
the preparation and implementation
into law of essential measures.
I am aware that the Law Reform
Commission has recently produced
a Report on Conveyancing and
Land Law which I hope will not go
the way of many previous Reports
and be left to gather dust on some
Civil Service shelf. I find it an
embarrassment when discussing
matters with lawyers in neighbour-
ing countries to have to admit that
we have had no major reforming
Act in the Land Law or Con-
veyancing area since the last
century; could it be that we would
actually go an entire century
without reform in this area?
•
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