Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)

He is well on his way.

The Minister of State referred to other secondary legislation. It defies logic that the protection regarding secondary legislation provided for in section 53 is other secondary legislation that can be rubber-stamped through the House. The Minister of State referred to the European Communities (Certification of Animals and Animal Products) Regulation 1999, SI 380/99. In effect, secondary legislation will protect other secondary legislation. That is a pointless argument. It is obvious he has not listened to our argument that checks and balances need to be put in place for the Minister, as much as anyone else.

While he argues that this is the wrong legislation on which to discuss this issue, the amendment states in black and white what vets can certify and it provides that the Minister, through secondary legislation, will make that provision regarding the certification. I do not want a situation in the future where a partnership member, the veterinary practitioners, has an ace card up its sleeve to put pressure on the Minister to act in a particular way. This could also have large ramifications regarding costs that could be introduced under emergency measures. The Minister could argue that due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, we have no other choice but to introduce these emergency measures.

We know the difficulties some provisions introduced under the definition of emergency measures cause on a day-to-day basis and that they subsequently cause hardship for many. However, these have not been reviewed as there is no provision to debate them on the floor of the House, as Deputy Crawford pointed out. The Minister of State must examine this issue again if he thinks that, just because there is other secondary legislation that goes through on a nod and a wink, we should drop this amendment.

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