Organisation information
About the Office of the Attorney General
From Office of the Attorney General
Published on
Last updated on
From Office of the Attorney General
Published on
Last updated on
The Office of the Attorney General plays an important role in supporting the Government in the pursuit of its objectives. Its mission is to provide the highest standard of professional legal services to the Government, its departments and offices, as economically and efficiently as possible and to support adherence to the rule of law.
The main functions of the Office of the Attorney General are:
The Office has extensive knowledge of the workings of the State and Government. This, combined with the professional legal skills of its experienced and dedicated staff and whole of Government perspective, enables the Office to support the Attorney General to provide its clients with a high quality service.
The Director General of the Office of the Attorney General is the head of the Office of the Attorney General as a whole within the meaning of the Public Service Management Act 1997 and has responsibility for the management of the Office. He or she is also the Accounting Officer for the Vote of the Office of the Attorney General.
The Office of the Attorney General comprises:
Across these various Offices, there are over 300 legal staff (including seconded Advisory Counsel and State Solicitors) and a total complement of almost 480 staff. Together, these Offices provide client Departments and Offices with a full spectrum of specialist legal services spanning advisory, legislative drafting, litigation and transactional work.
There is a Library and Know-how Unit within the Office of the Attorney General, comprised of legal researchers and librarian staff. Its role is to provide a wide range of research and know-how support services to the office. This includes the provision of on-demand legal research, the maintenance of a legal know-how database and assistance with the preparation of draft legislation, a wide range of current awareness services and legal references guides as well as information skills training programmes and access to a hard-copy and electronic law collection. Legal researchers are also assigned to Advisory and Parliamentary Counsel groups within the office to whom they provide specific research and know-how support.
There is also an Administration Unit which provides a wide range of corporate services to the Office.
The Office’s eISB Group oversees the ongoing production, management and updating of the electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB). The eISB is an online repository of primary and secondary legislation that is regularly updated and freely available to the public through its website www.irishstatutebook.ie
The Office also has a relationship with the Law Reform Commission . The Commission’s role is to keep the law under independent, objective and expert review, to make consequent recommendations for law reform and to make current law accessible for all. The Commission’s programme is carried out primarily under a programme of law reform approved by Government. The Attorney General may also request the Commission to examine specific areas of law in addition to those in a programme of law reform.