Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)

This will be more statements than additional questions. I hope the witnesses will forgive me that. When he stood up to speak to save the eurozone Mario Draghi used the phrase "Whatever it takes". We have joked a little bit about Mario Draghi's impact on mortgage interest rates for several people. That was a pivotal moment in the European Union, in the eurozone and in our own economy. That way of thinking is applied for things like monetary policy and trade and it is often not applied for things like climate and human rights. This is a significant concern for a lot of people around the table here today. Mr. Draghi's report was seminal and it was very important from the perspective of thinking about what the future of the European economy should look like and across different areas. I strongly agree with the idea of harmonisation and simplification. Given the fragmentation of different regulations between member states, the transposition issues and all of that, it is absolutely fair that we would try to rationalise this for businesses and make a stronger Single Market. It was not about reducing regulation, however, and while we may have a difference of opinion on whether this is reducing regulation, oftentimes when we talk about the Draghi report it is used as a bludgeoning stick of saying that we need to get rid of certain regulations rather than talking about the simplification agenda.

I would like to applaud the Department on one thing, which is the Enterprise Ireland supports for businesses in this regard. I encourage the Department to keep on going with that. It will be really important, especially as we continue with green agenda regulation, that these businesses get the support they need and not just financial support but also the expertise.

I am open to correction but my understanding is that outside of the contributions of Senator Alice Mary Higgins, there has not been substantive scrutiny or substantive discussion of these proposals in the Oireachtas up until last week. There is a question on how we actually go forward on this in such a short time when there are some significant concerns.