Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason is that section 18 triggers the obligation for the public participation statement, which is referenced in Article 9. It does exactly what Article 9 is suggesting.

I appreciate that we all need to be good-humoured about this. Nobody is arguing the Minister should provide a list of everything that is reasonable and unreasonable. That is not how legislation works. Even we in the Opposition, with our limited ability to understand innovation, get that, but, either in legislation regulations, there should be some way to determine whether something is reasonable; otherwise it is just left to the discretion of the Minister. One of my main concerns about section 18 is that subsection 18(5)(c) refers to the Minister only having regard to Article 9. The wording of section 18 is such that the Minister does not have to comply; he has only to have regard to the article and take reasonable steps to comply regarding the public participation statement, if he or she believes it is expedient or necessary to make changes to it. We do not know the point at which the public participation statement kicks in with respect to MSPs, DMAPs or anything else. The Minister of State can surely understand the concern we are articulating.