The number of staff drafting Government legislation was at its lowest level in several years, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said.
He said there were currently 19 permanent staff and four consultant drafters.
"In December 2002, 18 permanent staff and four consultant drafters were employed. Three assistant parliamentary counsels, grade two, were promoted following an internal competition to assistant parliamentary counsel, grade one, on 14th November, 2007."
Mr Ahern said that last July, the Department of Finance had sanctioned five vacancies at assistant parliamentary counsel, grade two. A competition organised on behalf of the office by the Public Appointments Service was held in December, and three of the successful candidates would join the office shortly. The office intended organising a further competition before the summer to fill the remaining two vacancies.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said it was clear that the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, formerly the Office of the Parliamentary Draftsman of the Office of the Attorney General, was under-staffed.
He asked if the under-staffing was the the cause, or a contributory factor, in the delay in legislation being published.
"I refer to a number of pieces of legislation which have been in the pipeline for some time, including the Ombudsman [ amendment] Bill, originally promised in 2003, the Broadcasting Bill, the Employment Agency Regulation Bill, which now appears to be dropped from the immediate publication list, the Employment Law Compliance Bill, the Dublin Transport Authority Bill and others."
Mr Ahern said that it had always been a very busy office, and its output maintained a very high average. There were four people on contract.
"Four people left for career breaks or secondments and two of them have returned. It is intended to phase out contract staff over a period of years because sufficient permanent trained parliamentary counsel are in place. The figure will remain at four - this year is a difficult year because one of the contract staff is not available for the year.
"Two more will finish up their time during the course of this year. The office is trying to engage more from common law jurisdictions."
