Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 14, inclusive, together.

Significant progress has been made since the publication of the OECD report on regulatory reform in Ireland. Many of the OECD recommendations related to specific sectoral issues and the appropriate Ministers with responsibility for those sectoral areas are reporting directly to the House on progressing the OECD recommendations.

However, as I explained in previous answers on this issue, the focus of our efforts in progressing regulatory reform is on implementing the White Paper, Regulating Better. The White Paper was published in January 2004 in response to the OECD's report. It sets out six core principles of better regulation and a detailed action plan on how these principles will be translated into how we design, implement and review legislation and regulation. Progress has been made in a number of key areas set out in the White Paper.

The better regulation group, which was established in 2004 to oversee the implementation of the action plan arising from the White Paper, met three times in 2005. The first meeting of 2006 took place at the end of January. Three subgroups have been established. The first is to progress certain commitments in the White Paper in relation to developing improved approaches to regulatory appeals and reviewing the issue of penalties for non-compliance with laws or regulations. Another subgroup is looking at improving electronic accessibility to statutory instruments and a third group is completing the audit of the regulatory framework.

In July 2005 I announced the establishment of a business regulation forum. The forum, which is under the aegis of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, comprises senior members of the public sector and business. It will give business an opportunity to identify regulatory measures that negatively impact on business and competitiveness or issues arising from inefficient, outdated or disproportionate regulation. The forum has met twice so far and is scheduled to meet again on 23 February.

Work is ongoing in supporting the roll out of a regulatory impact analysis, RIA. Since June 2005 a regulatory impact analysis must be conducted on all primary legislation involving changes to the regulatory framework, significant statutory instruments, EU directives and significant EU regulations. Guidelines on conducting the RIAs were published last October and approximately 1,300 copies have been distributed to Departments and Government offices. My Department is providing support and guidance to Departments and offices in respect of the regulatory impact analysis on an ongoing basis. Dedicated training has also been developed and will be run regularly during 2006.

Consistent with the White Paper's commitment to providing greater clarity and accessibility to legislation, the Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005 was signed into law just before Christmas on 18 December. This Act provides for the repeal of 206 statutes, which were enacted before 1922, that are spent, obsolete or no longer of practical utility. The process of streamlining and improving accessibility to the Statute Book will continue in 2006 with the introduction of a new statute law revision Bill. This Bill will clearly set out those Acts dating from before 1800 that are to remain in force. All other pre-1800 Acts, estimated at 2,300, will be repealed by this Bill. A public consultation phase will take place before publication of the Bill, which I hope will be enacted by the end of this year.

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