A bruising row is likely to erupt later between the Government and a Seanad Committee established to examine EU Directives before they are encoded into Irish law.
In an opening statement to the Committee, seen by RTÉ News, Minister of State Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will say that while there is "no difficulty" with individual government departments providing "initial draft instructions" on transposing EU law to committee members, subsequent drafts will be "subject to legal professional privilege and cannot be provided."
Her statement says that this position has been arrived at following discussions with the Attorney General, Rossa Fanning, who has formed the view that draft regulations transposing EU Directives into Irish law "represent a form of legal advice and are therefore subject to legal professional privilege."
This position is expected to lead to considerable controversy among members of the Seanad Select Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments on the basis that it substantially curtails the ability of its members to do what the Committee was established to do.
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It is expected members will argue that the Cabinet last year agreed to form a Seanad Committee to scrutinise EU laws, before being signed into Irish law by Ministers, but the Attorney General is effectively preventing the relevant draft legislation from being assessed.
In her statement, Ms Carroll MacNeill acknowledges that the Attorney General's position "may not be what the Committee wanted to hear".
"But I suggest, some one year or more into the life of the Committee, that it's important that there is clarity and legal certainty around what may, or may not be provided, by the departments."
However it is highly likely that the commitee members will counter that the position being advanced by the Attorney General is a complete bypassing of democratic scrutiny by the elected members of the Oireachtas and completely lacks the transparency which led to the Committee being created in the first place.
Minister of State Carroll MacNeill is due to address the committee at half past one this afternoon.
One of the members, who has forcefully demanded that the Seanad Select-Committee be provided with all available documentation, is the former Attorney General, former minister for justice and current Independent Senator Michael McDowell.
