Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are being told we are not allowed to see the legislation that is about to be signed into law. If I am wrong on this, I will stand corrected. The legislation we are discussing is analogous to laws initiated by the Oireachtas. In that case, a process of over-and-back engagement is fine. We have White Papers, pre-legislative scrutiny and so on. We are all familiar with that process. There are exchanges between the Attorney General's office and Departments. One could argue about privilege and all of that. In the case of primary legislation, the outcome of that process is called a Bill, which we all then go on to scrutinise. In the instances we are discussing, the outcome of the process is a draft statutory instrument, which we are not allowed to scrutinise. We are not allowed to see it and it will be signed into law by a Minister without anyone having scrutinised it.

That is making laws in secret. It lacks transparency. No government should accept it as a way of doing business, bearing in mind that there are more laws made in Ireland relating to EU directives than there is legislation originating in the Houses. In the case of the latter, we are allowed to engage in scrutiny and there is a whole process of over-and-back engagement. That will not be allowed to happen with EU-related draft statutory instruments. An example of that was the corporate sustainability reporting statutory instrument, which ran to more than 100 pages. We asked for it but never saw it. It was signed into law by the Minister, as reported on "Morning Ireland" on the morning of Monday, 8 July. No Member of the Oireachtas or any citizen of Ireland saw the document that was signed into law in advance of its being signed into law

I am conscious that my colleagues are waiting to speak. May we get a figure from the officials as to the daily fine being imposed on the State for late transposition of directives? I understand there are fines of €10,000 a day, which adds up to €3.65 million over a year. There are still fines outstanding. Am I correct that fines in the region of €10,000 are being incurred every day? That gives a total of €70,000 this week and €3.65 million by the end of the year. How many such fines are being imposed? I give way to my colleagues.