Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment will announce the composition and membership of the business regulation forum very shortly. Once the announcement is made, the forum will immediately become operational, all arrangements have been put in place. It is envisaged that the forum will advise the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on regulatory issues as they impact on business and competitiveness and, in particular, on problems arising from outdated, inefficient and disproportionate regulation. The group will examine areas where business can be more competitive so that we can keep Ireland at the cutting edge of leading technologies and business and ensure we are not disadvantaged by competitiveness gains made against us in other European countries or parts of the world. It will be a very useful group.

The business regulation forum is a separate issue from the issue of professions raised by the Deputy. The Competition Authority is nearing the end of its reports on some of the professions, including one on the legal profession. These are the issues the Deputy raises. The study will take account of practices, including some of those over which the Deputy correctly stated the professions are self-regulatory and control their own terms and rules. There are issues in the public domain on those matters at present and, as I stated recently, if they are not sorted out then the issue of legislation will arise. I hope they can be sorted out within their own terms.

We must deal with the issues that arise from the competitiveness council's final report. It has spent years working on this. It has issued interim reports, on eight professions as I recall, and its remaining reports are to be issued before Christmas.

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