Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

The Minister sets out what he believes are the positive reasons for the support he expects to come from the House. We in Fine Gael have always supported the concept of European integration and we have supported all European legislative proposals. We have taken a leading role in the promotion of the European project and continue to do so in a manner which is responsible and which has due regard for the need for legislation to be brought into line with European legislation, but more particularly with a view to ensuring that the primacy of the Parliament of the land should at all times have a central role to play.

It is in that regard that on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Allen, and my party I express my serious reservations at the sweeping and retrospective powers the Bill proposes to hand over to Ministers while the elected Houses of the Oireachtas are bypassed. The Bill enhances the growth of the powers of autocrats, technocrats, plutocrats and bureaucrats. It is a haven for them. In many cases these people have not been elected or are unelectable, but they are all provided for. Yet, the Government proposes by way of statutory instrument or regulation to bypass the Dáil and Seanad and to put into operation, in some cases retrospectively, legislation to comply with EU law.

The concept of retrospective legislation is a dangerous one. Moreover, I am surprised the Minister has not learned from the recent fisheries debacle that to proceed without due deference to the Oireachtas is dangerous. When this Bill was before the Seanad, Fine Gael put down a number of amendments, none of which was accepted by the Government, which had a total disregard for the suggestions of the Opposition. That being the case and there being no indication so far that the Government intends in any way to address the fears expressed in the Seanad, we will oppose the Bill because we believe in democracy, as should everyone in this House.

Democracy means that the Government should respect the principle of subsidiarity, which means that in all such cases the elected Parliament of the member state has a direct role to play. It is the Minister who will have a central role to play if this Bill is passed, which is a movement towards something which is far from democratic in principle. I am amazed the Bill has got this far when the Minister must have personal reservations about some parts of it. We must ensure the democratic principle of subsidiarity is observed and that the parliaments in the member states have an ongoing role to play, as envisaged in any democracy.

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the European Communities Act 1972 which allows for the transposition of certain EU law into Irish law by way of statutory instrument. However, the Bill will allow the Minister to transpose into Irish law EU law which carries the penalty of imprisonment for our citizens. A point that comes to mind concerns the environment, for which we must implement rigorous protection proposals, and rightly so. However, will the Minister be imprisoned if it was found that the various sewage treatment plants throughout the country were polluting the waterways? The Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, might be signing an order for himself. That is not what is intended. What is intended is to have other citizens——

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