Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On legislation, some hundreds of old Acts remain in place. We are almost there on the 1922 period. We must now review the old Acts and get rid of those that do not need to be there; we need to obtain the statutory instruments and statute law. This process has already started and on its completion the Law Reform Commission will then try to consolidate the Acts. It intends to set up a unit — discussions are taking place with the Department of Finance at present — and will be able to consolidate far more legislation going forward. Consequently, we will have a far tidier Statute Book. Any work that has taken place in recent years extended back in the main to 1922. There is still a great deal of other legislation and statutory instruments. Even if someone takes 1922 as a base — we are fairly close to achieving this completely — many other laws exist. In the next few years, the aim is to get the entire legislative base and statutory instruments right up to date. It will then be consolidated on an ongoing basis. Rather than going through the Departments to do this, which would take years, the Law Reform Commission will undertake this task. This will improve matters greatly.

The summary of the appeals mechanism for each of the various bodies I mentioned, such as the Commission for Communications Regulation, Commission for Aviation Regulation, Commission for Energy Regulation, the Financial Regulator etc., has been presented in the consultation paper. The group that is working on this matter has gathered information on appeals mechanisms within the public service and in respect of administrative decisions and other sectoral appeals. While this data informed the group's work, it is not referred to in detail in the paper. It tried to take all these areas into account by examining appeal mechanisms, including some from other countries, to see what changes could be made.

I understand from those working on this matter that, based on the experience of individual members and the information gathered both domestically and internationally, the group has identified a number of issues relevant to the design of an appeals mechanism for regulatory authorities. These include whether appeals should be heard by a court or an appeals panel; whether an appeals body should be ad hoc or a standing body; whether regulatory decisions should be suspended pending the outcome of an appeal; and methods for avoiding vexatious appeals.

A host of groups, organisations, bodies and agencies have the right, under statute, to make an appeal. I understand there are more than 100 such bodies. This measure is to try to bring this into some kind of coherent order. As the Deputy's question suggested, not everyone is jumping up to give his or her view in this regard and responses have not been great from either individuals or consumer groups. Responses tend to come from the professional groups. My Department's officials, without my urging have tried in the consultation paper to orientate a section on consumer and citizen appeals. They are examining developments in other countries. Hence, the officials themselves are trying to generate this mechanism. Unfortunately however, such matters do not greatly catch the imagination of Joe Public. However, they are important because they pertain to citizens' rights as to how they can appeal a decision made by a particular body. This is why my officials held public consultations and open days, which were useful.

The electricity issue is probably of interest to most people at present. I understand that on 8 September, the Commission for Energy Regulation published its draft decision on an average price increase of 19.7% for ESB consumers, to come into effect on 1 January. The proposed price will vary across various categories and while approving the price increase, the Commission for Energy Regulation has reduced the total revenue requirements sought by the ESB by more than €80 million, or approximately 3.5%. Moreover, it should be noted that the public sector obligation levy for next year will be zero. However, the Commission for Energy Regulation has decided to end the regulation of ESB tariffs for its largest customers and the commission's public consultation of the draft tariff closed on 29 September. Consequently, the regulator will make a final tariff determination for 2007. The energy regulator has indicated that the tariff will remain in place until the introduction of an all-island energy market, which is now scheduled for November 2007. To be precise about this, he is still preparing to make his determination, which will last for a year from 1 November next. I assume that the fluctuations which are happening——

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