Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The Minister of State has drawn our attention to section 58, namely the regulation and codes of practice that will be drawn up, under Part 6. I always break out in a cold sweat when I read this part of any Bill because here, after all the detail has been debated, the draftsman writes that notwithstanding the detail the Minister may do all sorts of things that he or she deems appropriate. It is a catch-all phrase supplying the belt and braces just in case of a problem.

The Minister of State has indicated that regulations will be required for the enactment of section 13 which includes subsection (c) and that under section 58(4)(d):

subject to subsection (5) and to any conditions that may be prescribed, exempt from all or any of the provisions of the relevant statutory provisions any specified class of work activity, employment, article or substance or any specified class of person or place of work, where, having regard to the class of work activity, employment, article, substance, person or place of work, the Minister is satisfied that the application of those provisions is unnecessary or impracticable and that adequate protective measures are in place.

That is a catch-all clause and I am concerned that the Minister of State points to this as his solution to the specific points I raised. I would prefer to have a specific requirement that the categories of work subject to mandatory drug testing would be laid out by the Minister of State and approved by the Oireachtas. Is that the Minister of State's intent? Will he use the provisions of section 58(4)(d) to do that, as I suggest?

Does he intend to specify categories of work and to exempt any categories of work or will all workers be subject to testing regardless, as baldly stated in section 13(1)(c)? We need to know the Minister's intention. I would prefer that it be laid out in the Act rather than be captured by a catch-all section at the end.

It is always dangerous to point out these catch-all sections because section 58(4)(a) states that Regulations under this Act may:

(a) contain any incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions that appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations,

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