Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I move amendmentNo. 48:

In page 17, to delete lines 23 to 29 and substitute the following:

"(3) Regulations under this section shall require the prior approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas following debate.".

I have already explained this. It is a provision that the Houses of the Oireachtas would approve regulations as too often such regulations are made by the Minister, rather than approved by the Houses. I have argued this point before.

Although the Tánaiste has argued there would be too many regulations for the Houses to deal with, the Joint Committee on European Affairs Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny has demonstrated a mechanism to deal with regulations and directives quite quickly while simultaneously allowing democratic scrutiny. Considering the major changes in the area of justice, regulations should come before the Houses in some form or other. They could pass quite quickly through the Houses themselves or a committee of the Houses.

See this speech in context