Mr. Neil Willoughby:

I will respond to the Deputy’s remark about the impact of geopolitics on regulation. In a broader context, we still need to recognise that we have world-leading standards in a vast amount of areas in the European Union and also in Ireland. When we look at what is being proposed by the European Commission and what is being dealt with by the other institutions. we need to take the word “simplification” at face value. When we talk about the omnibus, we are not talking about eliminating the legislation that exists in terms of the CSDDD or due diligence; we are looking at amending it while still working towards achieving the objectives that are there. The Commission has set out its proposals and is going through a process before we have a final legal text. We need to take at face value the general principle that there is a need to simplify legislation, particularly in light of what has happened over the past five years.

In the previous mandate of the Commission, a lot of new legislation was introduced that had an impact on businesses. In addition to the legislation we are speaking about today, there was environment, climate, digital and social legislation, as well as legislation in a whole raft of other areas. There is a need to make sure legislation is as lean as possible in terms of its burden on companies, while achieving its objectives at the same time. Specifically, when we look at the CS treaty, we need to bear in mind it was a high-priority file that was agreed in very quick time just before the European Parliament elections to make sure it had been agreed by the previous Parliament. A number of substantive changes to the text were made very late in the day that possibly need to be looked at in a bit more detail. I refer, for example, to changes to the scope of application. The Commission had originally proposed that it would apply to enterprises with over 250 employees, but that was increased to 1,000. There are other areas as well. Broadly, looking at regulation we still have a very high level of standards in the European Union. We are not looking at deregulation here; we are looking at simplification. The nuances and detail of the legislation are another matter to work through.