Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I was a Minister on the other side of the House I did this with regulations and I was one of the first Ministers who brought regulations to committees. I remember one regulation that could have been contentious but we twice went over very detailed procedure and followed the advice given by the committee. What could have been contentious turned out to be not contentious at all.

I believe that one is not going to change matters by making something desirable. The reality is that Ministers will be told that it is desirable to bring regulations to a committee but they are in a hurry because Departments always issue them at the last minute. A Minister is told that he or she must sign the regulation and, therefore, nothing will change. Obviously the House is controlled by whatever government is in power. That is the reality of the system that we operate. I am not sure that it is easy to change that part of the system. I would not like to live with the American system where its Executive does not have a working majority in the house so nothing gets done. I am not opposed to the idea of the Executive having a working majority in the House unless it steps completely out of bounds. Of course I mean a practical working majority and not a theoretical one. To ensure that there is proper debate we must build on what we have done with EU legislation and the provision must be written into primary legislation otherwise there will be no progress. I would prefer if the Government introduced an omnibus ruling or a new Standing Order that no regulation could be passed unless it was referred to an appropriate committee. I will not hold my breath to see if that will happen in the short term.

I ask the Minister to accept my amendment. This is one case that is not based on technical advice supplied by a draftsperson. The Minister has received policy advice not to bring all of this down on our heads because it is too much hassle. Legislating can never be too much hassle. Every shortcut taken with legislation - all governments have done it - has always proven to be the most vulnerable to controversy and difficulty.