Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, absolutely but we are working out the process on this. These are things that affect people every day. In the case of a statutory instrument, the old process was very much lacking in transparency, as the Minister of State will appreciate. People used to wake up, years down the line, and ask how something became law. All we are trying to do, in terms of democratic oversight, is to give statutory instruments to the relevant sectoral committees and to highlight them by way of the Chair of this committee and the Department saying that they are up for consideration. The old system of adopting and taking on board EU legislation was the equivalent of the Oireachtas being told that the Government was going to bring in some legislation on agriculture. Members would be given the broad principles of that legislation and would discuss them and then the Minister would get the very detailed legislation a year or two later and would sign it into law. That is what we have been doing with EU legislation for years. We did it that way because there was no political benefit in scrutinising legislationper se. People generally do not get involved in the nuts and bolts but the problem is that the nuts and bolts are what affect people on the ground years down the line.

I thank the Minister of State for clarifying that. I know we are going to be discussing those Bills in private session. It is the equivalent of Second Stage of legislation because we are discussing the general principles but this goes to the sectoral committee. In future those discussions should be held in public because we are discussing legislation.