The Irish experience would seem to suggest that the public readership dimension is absent from legislation. The lay person does not seem to concern him or herself directly with the intricacies of legislation. The principal readers of our laws appear to be those who implement, administer and enforce the law. Some of those who fall into this category are regulatory authorities, the police force and the judiciary - all of whom would approach a legal text with a considerable understanding of the law. The contention that laypersons are a key audience in the context of legislation, simply does not stand up. If it is established that the key audience for legislation is not lay persons, but rather is lawyers, judges, regulators, law enforcers, interest groups etc., then the arguments in favour of using plain language seem unconvincing.

4. Assumption: "Plain language legislation will function as effectively as legislation drafted in the traditional style"

Does Plain Language Equate with Clear Language?
Clear language is that which is unambiguous and is capable of only bearing the meaning intended by its author. Plain language in not necessarily clear language. A concept expressed in plain language, will not always carry a clear and unambiguous meaning. Utilising plain language in legislative drafting is likely to increase the incidence of vagueness and ambiguity in legislation - this is a consequence which drafters cannot allow to occur.

If legislation is drafted in terms which are wide and general, this is likely to give rise to different interpretations and inevitable challenge. At the other extreme, the more one tries to be exhaustive, the more vulnerable the legislation will be to omissions and potential challenge. So achieving a healthy balance between the two extremes represents a great challenge to any legislative drafter. It is in this context that the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to the Government in Ireland warns against "over drafting":

"Precision in drafting is a worthy goal, but can be taken too far. It is frequently unnecessary to name every single thing you are forbidding or requiring. An overzealous attempt at precision may result in redundancy and verbosity. Drafting too precisely may create unintended loopholes."¹⁸