Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to a range of matters. Perhaps I should not have accepted the invitation, it was premature to do so and I should have insisted on waiting until September or October until I had had the opportunity to do the body of work I am proposing to do to attempt to be of assistance to the committee. I will reflect on that the next time I receive an invitation. I am here to try to be of the best service I can to the committee.

With that in mind, it is important for the committee to remember that it is scrutinising statutory instruments, which are the product of a legislative process. Members are legislators, but they are not the primary legislators in this instance, and it is wrong to equate the role of this committee to that of a primary legislature, which in this instance is the European Parliament and the codecision process at European level. It is not correct to say, infer or equate in any way this legislative process with a primary legislative process either in this House or in Europe. It is not correct to align this process with the transfer of a Bill into an Act, which is a primary legislative process. It is wrong for this committee or members of it to suggest that there is some measure of secrecy, hiding behind anything or keeping things quiet. It is not a primary legislative process. It is the transposition of secondary legislation. The primary legislation has already received full transparent scrutiny in a competent legislature. That is a really important point.

I agree with the committee, however, and the best measure of transparency possible is what I would like to see. I am trying to work for the committee as well as with the committee to achieve that. Already, I have managed to achieve a process update, that being, a much earlier publication, not just of an information note, but of the draft statutory instrument. I hope the committee will at least acknowledge that. I am trying to work on achieving that with Departments at a much earlier stage and getting that standardised process for the committee. If the committee-----