Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, Senator O'Reilly is right on the actual fundamental reason for this. I focused on it because you get better legislation. The actual fundamental piece as well - this was clear, coming from the Future of Europe process - is the connect with the public that people see, and the decisions that affect them. They really do affect them. These are very significant. Every decision about transposition can have a real impact.

There is a small one that has passed and gone, like the human tissue Bill. That is the transposition of the directive requiring that PRSI payments might be paid for spouses on family farms. I know that in Ireland, you have to have an independent income of up to €5,000 to be allowed to make those PRSI payments. You almost need a self-employed income to do it. I am trying to find out how many are actually benefiting from that directive that came in. Ireland derogated and derogated, and then transposed at the last minute in 2014. These are small and previous choices. We are not really looking back; we are kind of looking to the future. Basically, there are multiple examples whereby a slightly different choice could have made a huge difference for the public.

That is on the impact but also, crucially, on the accountability. That is why there is that issue of being able to see the draft statutory instruments is important. We are not asking for internal memos. This is literally, as the Minister of State said, having had two, four or seven years to transpose, that six months before the deadline for transposition, there would be a draft statutory instrument. That is basically law. When it becomes a statutory instrument, it is going to be available publicly but then at that draft point, much like a Bill on Second Stage and so forth, it would be there, we can look at it, identify if there are areas of potential concern, flag them to a committee so it can look at them and then gave useful feedback that may improve them. There may be situations where the public can bring expertise. There are very few among the public who necessarily want to go into statutory instruments but there are people who do. It depends. People are not going to look at all of them-----