Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

The House should have ample time to consider this serious Bill, which proposes to give Ministers the right to transpose EU regulations and directives, including laws that carry penalties of heavy fines and imprisonment, into Irish law. This legislation, which is extremely significant and extremely flawed, is even more exceptional because it will allow Ministers to enact laws retrospectively. Given that the Government has shown no willingness to consider amendments to the Bill, and considering how unacceptable the legislation is in its current form, Fine Gael has no option but to reject it as seriously defective and, therefore, to vote against it. Fine Gael will seek to amend the Bill substantially on Committee Stage, although I wonder how useful my amendments will be given that they are sure not to be accepted.

The Bill highlights a number of significant problems with the Government's lackadaisical approach to the adoption of EU directives, not least of which is the subversion of our democratic process. Section 3 proposes to give Ministers the right to implement EU law by means of statutory instrument, thereby amending domestic legislation without the consent of any Member of the House. Such action would completely remove the Members of the Oireachtas, who are representatives of the Irish nation, from the democratic process. If this legislation by stealth is accepted, the Government will be able to subjugate the power of the Oireachtas to the whim of an individual Minister. As the scrutiny of ministerial statutory instruments is not as rigorous as the scrutiny of proposed legislation, it would be irresponsible to give Ministers the authority to validate retrospective criminal legislation without an adequate amount of inspection.

This Bill needs to be re-examined and amended. It is the responsibility of my party to demand that the Bill ensures that all statutory instruments — those deriving from EU legislation and others — are laid before the Oireachtas for 21 sitting days to allow any Member to review, and if necessary, challenge their provisions. We propose that statutory instruments will become law only if no such challenges are issued. This proposed amendment, which is necessary, also seeks to remove the retrospective effect of the legislation.

The Fine Gael Party, which has always supported Ireland's role in the European Union, will continue to support that role in the years to come. Significant benefits have accrued to Irish people from this country's membership of the EU. Certain improvements which have been driven by the EU have been extremely beneficial to the nation as a whole. Although the implementation of EU directives has made Ireland safer and more prosperous, this country continues to lag behind other member states in the timely adoption of such directives. The method by which directives are adopted has been consistently defective under the stewardship of this Government.

I am currently the Chairman of the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on EU Scrutiny, which is severely understaffed and continuously overworked. It fulfils an extremely important role on a shoestring budget. It is time to recognise the sub-committee's importance, and the magnitude of its work in terms of Ireland's membership of the EU, by putting in place new arrangements to increase its staffing and funding. Given that the sub-committee met 16 times and examined 552 documents in 2006, it should be obvious, even to the Minister, that better arrangements are needed for the examination of so many important documents in such a short period. I do not know how the officials who work behind the scenes to scrutinise and examine every document that is referred to the sub-committee are able to bear their workload. The majority of the sub-committee's work — 69% of it in 2006 — involves examining documents relating to regulations, decisions and directives. Some 56 Common Foreign and Security Policy measures were considered that year, including the application of restrictive measures against Burma, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire and against suspected terrorists for their involvement in the assassination attempts on Belorussian officials and the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr. Rafik Hariri. Other documents which were considered dealt with steps to combat the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons. On issues of such importance we must not simply hand over absolute authority, retrospective or otherwise, to one Minister.

Of the 552 documents considered in 2006, a total of 98 or 18% were singled out as having significant implications for our country and as warranting further scrutiny. These were subsequently referred to the appropriate sectoral committees. Documents of such impact cannot be allowed to slip through the fingers of the understaffed sub-committee if further scrutiny is a necessity. We simply must improve the method by which these directives are reviewed; it would be nothing less than complete negligence to do otherwise.

It is our responsibility, on behalf of our country, to scrutinise European Union proposals to ensure we achieve the maximum benefit from them and are not hampered by laws contrary to our national interests. To simply allow Ministers to ratify them with a wave of a hand is not in anyone's best interest. A dangerous gap exists between the administration of the EU and the common European citizen. Rather than taking steps to bridge this gap, and make the law of the EU more accessible and pertinent to the Irish citizens and the democratic institutions that they have founded and protected, this Bill and the method by which European directives will be transposed if it is enacted, will only serve to alienate our nation further from the European Union and will give hostages to fortune to the enemies of the Union.

Fine Gael has always promoted Ireland's membership in the European Union and will continue to do so. We actively recognise the good things that have been brought about in Irish society from EU directives and our membership in the Union, namely, the important human rights and anti-discrimination legislation, the ability to work and travel in any EU country, strong industrial guidelines that protect our environment and codes for workers' safety that protect our national health.

However these benefits do not simply fall out of the sky. It is important to recognise that these benefits flow from our transposition of EU directives into domestic law. This is a matter of such great importance that it deserves more than the cursory lip service Ministers seem content to give it.

It is not our intent to discourage the adoption of EU directives. They have proven to be significantly beneficial to our nation and to our way of life. I regret that in discussing such important and dangerous legislation the Government is effectively gagging the Opposition. This legislation will undermine the supremacy of this Parliament.

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