Dear Editor,
It’s crystal clear that the consultation proceedings’ outcome was blatantly disregarded and subsequently brushed under the rug, with no semblance of rigorous parliamentary examination taking place. In the 2020 public consultation, 3,597 feedback inputs were collected from citizens. Astonishingly, 2,627 pieces of feedback, constituting a 73 per cent majority, expressed disagreement with the bill. Despite this, the Minister for Justice opted to dismiss these personal inputs, instead centering his attention on the majority agreement from ‘civil society organisations’ (a government euphemism for NGOs) towards the proposal.
In the Oireachtas, the nine-member Justice Committee gave a relatively brief 90 minutes to debate the bill. Most surprisingly, not a single member from either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael contributed a word to this discussion.
This bill has been an utter disaster right from its inception to its end, and the only people likely to lament its downfall are the NGOs who spent taxpayers’ money campaigning for it. The only redeeming quality of the whole procedure was the exposure of the apparent political incompetence endemic within the Justice Department, along with the profoundly defective legal formulation process witnessed in the Oireachtas houses.
Sincerely,
Barry Wlash,
Dublin 3.