Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 8, to delete lines 14 to 19 and substitute the following:"(3) The Minister shall not make regulations under this Act without it being laid before and approved by each House of the Oireachtas.".

The reasons I tabled this are twofold. First, I believe that regulations on a piece of legislation such as this should have a positive vote of the Oireachtas. The Minister, in his contribution to amendment No. 11, gave the impression that regulations would be brought back before the Oireachtas. As the legislation is currently drafted, that is not the case; instead, they would be laid before the Oireachtas. In such a case the Opposition would be required to table a motion - usually in Private Members' time, because it is not normally given permission by the Government to move one in Government time - to strike out that statutory instrument and ministerial order. That is the difficulty. My amendment would provide that if the Minister wished to include other institutions in the list of those approved to carry out these procedures, or to make any other regulations that were required, he or she would have to table a motion before the House and get its approval. It would help to provide clarity and a safety net for some who have concerns about the legislation.

The second reason I tabled this amendment is that in December last when the Government made its initial decision, which was for a twin-track approach involving primary legislation and regulation, the Taoiseach made it quite clear that both would be published in tandem and that we would have the secondary legislation for consideration along with the primary legislation. As the Minister will be aware, this is an issue I flagged on Second Stage, when I seemed to get an indication from the Aire Stáit that there was an intention to produce regulations. However, we are on Committee Stage and we still have not seen those regulations. It would help to provide some of the clarity that is required regarding the implementation of this legislation. In view of the fact that under the legislation as currently drafted the regulation will be laid before the House rather than approved by the House, it is imperative that those regulations be made available to us to consider in tandem with the primary legislation. However, this has not happened. I urge the Minister to accept my amendment and allow for the regulations to be formally laid before and approved by the House prior to their enactment.