Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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98. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in view of the responsibility of his Department for regulatory impact assessments through its evaluation unit, if his Department provided input directly to the RIA on plain packaging and assessed the potential impact of the removal of intellectual property rights on future foreign direct investment and the potential cost of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15901/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Regulatory impact analysis (RIA) is a tool used by Departments to assess the costs, benefits and qualitative impacts of regulatory proposals. Individual Departments are responsible for conducting and preparing RIAs when considering legislative proposals or regulatory policy options. The role of my Department is to provide technical advice, when requested, by other Departments which are in the process of conducting specific RIAs.

In the normal course of events it is therefore primarily a matter for the individual Departments themselves to identify and analyse the various impacts attributable to the regulatory proposals. In the specific cases referred to by the Deputy, my Department was not approached for assistance on the draft RIA reports.