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

We all know what happens in the laying of regulations. My experience of laying regulations before the Houses of the Oireachtas is that because they are not brought before a committee or dealt with in a plenary session of the Houses, many Deputies have complained during the years that they missed regulations because of the hundreds of documents placed in the Oireachtas Library. In the case of EU legislation, we found that it was much better to place it before the appropriate committee in order that people would know about it and that they would not be able to argue they had not been warned. I hear what the Minister has said about the forms and accept it. However, given that he can change the list of hospitals in the Schedule, it would be preferable if the regulations were brought to the committee for debate before signing them. It would be a small step and allay people's fears that they could be signed, laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and missed by everybody. I ask the Minister to consider coming back on Report Stage with a small amendment to ensure that would happen.