Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach and committee for the invitation to attend and address them. I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his appointment. I know he will put his experience in the Oireachtas to good use. When I was recently at the Prespa Forum in North Macedonia, there was huge gratitude for his presentation at the Organization for Security and Co-operation Europe, OSCE, during which he really relayed lived experience to the members. His work is acknowledged and I hope he can bring his experience to bear in this committee.

I welcome the establishment of the Seanad Select Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments. There is no doubt that the European Union impacts greatly and positively the lives of Irish citizens. For the past 18 months I, along with other ministerial colleagues, have been engaged in the EU50 programme, a period of reflection with both a domestic and international focus, to engage with our citizens and our European partners on Ireland’s place in Europe. This morning I was honoured to host an event in Government Buildings with some of our Eurobabies, those born on 1 January 1973.

Ireland’s development has been fundamentally shaped by our membership of the EU. Much of this is by EU legislation, which Ireland, as part of the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament through the co-decision process, has assented to. It is only right that proposals from the European Commission are properly scrutinised by member state parliaments. Many will be brought forward following extensive consultations, not just at technical level but also with member state administrations and often through citizen consultations. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has recently committed the Commission to much greater use of citizen consultations. This is very much in line with the recommendations of the future of Europe consultations undertaken in the past two to three years, of which the Government, including my predecessors, is strongly supportive.

From a parliamentary perspective, when a legislative proposal is published by the Commission, the relevant Department has 20 working days in which to provide an information note on the issue to the Oireachtas. In line with arrangements which have applied for over 12 years, the scrutiny of these proposals is mainstreamed to the relevant sectoral committee. Sectoral committees may seek additional information in respect of individual proposals and can call witnesses, including Ministers. The House occasionally follows through on some of those proposals and issues reasoned political opinions on some of these, often on grounds of subsidiarity. Committees may - and are encouraged to - make their views on particular proposals to relevant Ministers in order that these can be taken into account when the proposals are proceeding to relevant councils for decision. Once a directive is agreed at Council and subsequently with the European Parliament, it is published and typically member states are given two years in which to transpose it.

It is only right I should say that at that stage, the room for manoeuvre for member states is limited. The policy choices have been made and member states must bring the directive into force by the deadline. In any year there may be 50 to 70 or more co-decision directives to be transposed. Where necessary, the primary legislative route will be followed. Otherwise, the EU directive will be transposed by secondary legislation under section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972, which will be the focus of this new committee’s work.

Last year, when the Government was agreeing to the Seanad proposals for establishment of this new committee, strong advice was received that the new process should not in any way hinder the completion of regulations to transpose these directives, as failure to do so on time can inevitably lead to the opening of infringement proceedings. Thus, the decision of Government was that the focus of the new arrangements should be on draft statutory instruments at the start of the process, that is, as soon as possible after the directives have been published, where there is the greatest opportunity for there to be adequate time to take account of any views of the Seanad committee or of sectoral committees, where cases have been referred to them for further scrutiny. Accordingly, I look forward to processes being put in place whereby newly published directives can be scrutinised by this committee at an early stage and where the views of the committee and sectoral committees can be taken into account by Ministers and their Departments in finalising the statutory instruments to transpose these directives.

In terms of scope, the Government agreed last year that not all statutory instruments transposing EU measures should fall for review by the committee. For example, routine statutory instruments providing for technical definition updates, say designation of a special area of conservation; giving effect to Commission implementing or delegated directives; or concerning EU sanctions or restrictive measures, are outside the scope of this new process.

The focus of the committee is on the transposition of EU directives. I am happy to advise that Ireland’s transposition rate continues to improve. The European Commission’s Single Market scoreboard measures the rate of compliance across member states twice per year, at the end of May and November. The headline target for member states is 0.5%, effectively that not more than five directives are late in being transposed. Each year there may be 30, 40 or more directives in the Single Market area to be transposed. This target has been very difficult to achieve for all member states over the past three years or so, not least due to Covid impacts. Over this time, Ireland’s figure stood at around 1.2%, or approximately 12 directives missing the deadline, putting us around the middle of the class in terms of performance.

However, I am happy to advise, while formal confirmation is awaited from the Commission, that we expect only seven directives missed the end of May deadline for the summer 2023 Single Market scoreboard. If this is the case, this should put Ireland among the best performing member states in terms of transposition but we are not resting on our laurels in this regard. Members will be aware that Ireland will next assume the Presidency of the EU on 1 July 2026. The Tánaiste, in a recent memorandum to the Government, has tasked Ministers and their Departments to bring this figure down to zero by May 2026 in order that we start our Presidency with all directives transposed on time. This was achieved before our previous Presidency in 2013, which is only the second time across the EU that this had been done. We are committed to doing the same for 2026.

Turning back to the work of this new Seanad committee, as with any new arrangements there inevitably will be teething issues and it may take a period of trial and error to come up with the best workable solution. At the end of the day, I hope the new process will see the expertise and experience of the esteemed committee members I see today being used to scrutinise draft EU-related statutory instruments and to improve the transposition of EU legislation in Ireland.