Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister very much. He has put his finger on the nub of the issue and also the reason for this committee, whose role is to scrutinise EU legislation, ensure that there are not infringements and that transposition happens in a timely manner. Unfortunately, we have suffered a good bit of pushback from Departments - not Ministers to a large extent but from officials, in terms of getting statutory instruments in a timely manner so that we can refer them on to the sectoral committees.

The Leas-Chathaoirleach to the committee describes it very well. The committee is essentially like an air traffic control system. We flag and channel statutory instruments to the sectoral committees for detailed scrutiny, if that is required.

I am conscious that the Minister must be gone by 7:45 p.m. so I will take all three speakers together, starting with the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Senator Mark Daly.