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

Section 19, which deals with certification, specifies that a certification "shall be made in the prescribed form and manner". That seems fine. However, it also stipulates that the certification must "contain the prescribed information". In other words, the question of what information is included on the form will be decided by the Minister. This sub-committee would be very interested in having some input into that decision before it is signed off by way of regulation. We are not just talking about name, address and so on; it is a question of deciding precisely what information is or is not certified. There is a great deal of interest in this issue and the members of the sub-committee will certainly want to know what information will be on the form.

The Minister's dismissive response that it is only about a form is a little simplistic. I cannot understand, in the interests of general good practice - Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin was very eloquent in his comments on this matter - why we insist on bringing all EU legislation, often containing provisions that have no relevance to Ireland, before the relevant committees for scrutiny - there has been a great deal of talk about a role for the Seanad in this regard-----