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

How may weeks exactly have I have been in this position? I am trying to introduce a new process. Perhaps the committee would listen to the words I am saying rather than refer back to notes, which I qualified as I read them. Listen to what I am saying. I am trying to introduce a new process for the benefit of this committee and of the management of statutory instrument processes more generally so that they happen in a more timely way and do not risk fines where those can be avoided, thereby benefiting the State. I am trying to get a process agreed across government for the committee, not just to get an instruction note, although I believe that would be sufficient on the more technical statutory instruments. Other statutory instruments require a more substantive document from a Department – in essence, the draft statutory instrument – to be published to this committee and more broadly within a specified period. I have suggested six months, but I would like to lower that.

The work by the Department should have been done upstream prior to the directive being agreed. The work of this committee and the sectoral committee should also have been done upstream. There is a substantive opportunity for the committee to do that, not just to act post factum. Of course, the very essence of statutory instruments is post factum, but there is an opportunity to do the upstream work also and to have a much more substantive role. I would like the Departments to place their weight and engagement at that stage because that is the opportunity for Ireland to have more meaningful engagement on the outcome of the directives. There is that piece of work as well, but I am trying to introduce a process more broadly where the instruction note and, more importantly, the draft statutory instrument are published at an earlier stage because they-----