The Attorney General and the Taoiseach are opposed to the outsourcing of legislation for drafting, Mr Ahern has told the Dáil.
Mr Ahern said the subcontracting of legislation to outside agencies was not a good idea. The quality of such drafting "is not of much use" and "unsatisfactory", and the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Counsel's offices "end up doing the drafting themselves".
Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte said the Central Bank Bill had been contracted out at a cost of €1.5 million and before it went to committee stage "the Bill had to go back to the Office of the Attorney General to be redrafted". He said that € 1.5 million was a "mind-blowing" figure for a single Bill, no matter how substantial or complex.
Mr Ahern, who was responding during Taoiseach's questions, said that "no Bills were drafted in private practice" in the past five years - when 226 Bills were enacted.
He said that the two Bills drafted outside the office of the Attorney General in the past five years were drawn up by a former official of the Parliamentary Counsel's office.
The Taoiseach added however that "an outside firm with special expertise advises the Department of Finance on the regulation of financial services" which related to the Central Bank Bill. He said that "as part of that advice, the firm prepared a sample draft of the Central Bank and Financial Service Authority Bill. That was a substantial Bill with a large number of heads," but the Bill itself was drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. That sample draft was presented only as the heads of a Bill.
"The Bill itself was drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel." He said that these situations "seldom arise".
Opposition leaders had asked whether his department had sought the approval of the Attorney General, to subcontract such drafting. Mr Ahern stressed the distinction between statutory instruments and Bills. The Attorney General was not opposed to statutory instruments being sent out for drafting, he said. There was "merit in the heads of Bills being drafted by people with legal qualifications in the various departments. There are a number of such people in the top six departments," he said.
