Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I should keep a record of all of the memos the Minister of State has promised to bring back to us because his officials, who are already overworked on this Bill, are going to have ever-growing mountains of paper to produce.

This is my last word on the IPI for the moment. The difference between the Minister of State's and the IPI's description of the consultation process is interesting. That should be noted.

Amendment No. 40 seeks to ensure that where regulations are laid before the House, there would have to be a Dáil debate on them. My understanding - and correct me if I a wrong - is that, generally speaking, the only regulations we get to deal with through the Oireachtas are those in which there are changes to exempted development regulations. Generally speaking, a motion is laid before the Dáil to refer the regulation to committee. There is a very technical discussion at committee which can often be very useful. Sometimes there is a commitment to change the regulation if an anomaly or mistake is highlighted. The motion then goes back to the Dáil for it to proceed. There is not a vote on the regulation, per se, but on it having come from a committee. Like the Chair, I found those engagements really useful. On a number of very controversial areas, the committee has shown itself to be very responsible in that regard.

However, it is only on exempted development regulations and not on all the others. The motion is taken without debate unless we force another motion to have a debate, which seems a bizarre procedure. Amendment No. 40 seeks to ensure that where regulations are laid before the House, there is a formal debate. As a belt-and-braces addition, amendment No. 41 then lists the areas from the Bill where regulations may arise that should be subject to that Oireachtas oversight and scrutiny. Sometimes something that is technical can have very profound consequences for the public. With no disrespect to the media, technical discussions of this nature in committee do not very often generate headline news reportage. When those same issues are discussed on the floor of the Dáil, however, there is a greater media and public awareness of it, which may generate more public knowledge and understanding, and that is always a good thing. Amendments Nos. 40 and 41 are complementary and seek to ensure adequate Dáil debate of at least one hour and stipulate specifically the types of regulations that should be subject to that kind of Oireachtas oversight.