Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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No. I will move on to amendment No. 38. The Minister of State did not fully respond on amendment No. 37. Perhaps he could do so when responding to amendment No. 38, which also relates to section 4. Obviously, it follows on from our discussion on what the Government is proposing. Section 4(4) states:

Where regulations are proposed to be made under subsection (1) of section 9 or subsection (2) of section 412, a draft of the regulations shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made unless and until a resolution approving the draft is passed by each such House.

One of the problems is that there is no public engagement at all. These are not always minor regulations; they can be quite significant and have a major impact on the system. I want to amend the subsection to provide that the relevant Minister shall:

(a) establish a list of prescribed bodies for the purposes of consultation on regulations and other matters under this Act under their jurisdiction,

[...]

(c) before making regulations under this Act, consult with the prescribed bodies that are connected with or relate to the matters to which any proposed regulations the relevant Minister is preparing, and provide them with an effective opportunity to participate and comment on the proposed regulations, and take due account of the consultation input.

One of the interesting things is that this can happen in real life. Officials sometimes decide that they will do some engagement and consultation, and they have key stakeholders. However, it does not always happen, and it is not necessarily done in a transparent or above-board way. It seems there would be real value in doing this. I am not suggesting something very long, cumbersome or resource intensive. We certainly do not want to see the kind of delays we see when building regulations are being amended, for example, because that can sometimes take several years, as is happening currently with the fire safety regulations review. Given the complexities of regulations from the planning, environmental and legal perspectives, there would be benefit to some level of consultation - if not in the way I have proposed, then at least in some other way. Increasingly, planning law is determined as much by regulation as by primary legislation. In that context, some form of consultative process would be extremely valuable. I will be pressing the amendments.