Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I like to think that I could not be accused of shying away from discussion at committees. At this stage I have attended here a couple of times a week. I am sure that I shall be back again when my Department brings forward a series of regulations and codes of conduct that we must put in place. I am sure that we shall discuss them even more when we deal with valuation.

It is also important that there is consistency across Departments in terms of how regulations are passed in primary legislation. If a Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the one hand required that all regulations being introduced must first go to a committee and other Ministers said that regulations can be made by just laying them before the House, there would be inconsistency in how regulations are passed. I am not sure that is sensible.

If we were to do what Deputy Ó Cuív would like, the way to deal with it in primary legislation is to agree that all regulations would come before a committee before they would be passed. However, there are certain circumstances in which Ministers need to pass regulations quickly, particularly in the case of disease outbreak or the like. It is important that there would at least be the option of passing a regulation quickly in response to a crisis. Going through a procedure of committee scrutiny beforehand would be the preferable option when we have the time to do it, but I am not sure that we should tie a Minister's or Government's hands generally. We would set a precedent if we do it here with regard to passing regulations. I am sure that when Deputy Ó Cuív was a Minister there were times when he had to make decisions to introduce regulations without delay by laying them before the House. There was an opportunity for the House to annul them within 21 days before they came into force, which is the required procedure.

On balance, I hope the members will find that I am a Minister who will come before this committee to get its views before I introduce regulations, as I did before the budget. However, I do not agree that we should put that into legislation as a requirement.