Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 8, inclusive, together.

The OECD Report, Regulatory Reform in Ireland, was published in 2001. Since then, significant progress has been made in the area of regulatory reform. The Government White Paper, Regulating Better,published in January 2004 in response to the OECD's report, provides the basis for work on the Better Regulation agenda. Importantly, it sets out six core principles that must be reflected in how we design, implement and review legislation and regulation. These principles are necessity, effectiveness, proportionality, transparency, accountability and consistency. The Government is confident that adherence to the above principles will ensure that Ireland's regulatory framework remains flexible and responsive to the needs of business and citizens alike.

Some of the key areas outlined in the OECD report relate to specific sectoral issues and the appropriate Ministers with responsibility for those sectoral areas are reporting directly to the House on progressing those recommendations. A detailed report on progress made in implementing the White Paper commitments was submitted to Government earlier this year and is available on the Better Regulation website. My Department has a specific remit on better regulation in that a dedicated unit within the public service modernisation division is tasked with promoting the better regulation agenda. The programme for Government includes a commitment to instigate a review of the economic regulatory environment which dovetails well with elements of the action programme for better regulation contained in the White Paper. The preparatory phase of this review is in progress across the relevant Departments.

It might be useful for me to outline for the House the progress made to date on the implementation of the White Paper, in particular in regulatory impact analysis, modernisation of the Statute Book and improving the regulatory environment for business.

Regulatory impact analysis, RIA, has been introduced across Government Departments and offices. Officials are now routinely applying RIA to legislative proposals in advance of their submission to Government. The better regulation unit of my Department provides practical support for officials conducting RIAs, including a training course and guidelines, as well as through the RIA network. Departments and offices are strongly encouraged to publish RIAs on their websites. Making good on commitments contained in Towards 2016, my Department is also progressing an independent, external review of the introduction of RIA in Ireland.

The better regulation unit of my Department has, together with the Office of the Attorney General, steered and focused work in the area of modernisation of the Statute Book. The Statute Law Revision Act 2007 was signed into law by the President in May of this year and repealed 3,225 obsolete statutes. The removal of these redundant Acts from our Statute Book has undoubtedly assisted in clarifying the legislation that remains in force.

Last month, a public consultation process on the next phase of statute law revision was launched, focusing on local and personal and private Acts enacted prior to 6 December 1922. This phase of the project has the potential to be bigger again than the May 2007 Act. It would probably be the largest statute law revision Act ever enacted anywhere in the world.

In addition, as part of the development of an appropriate programme of restatement, the Law Reform Commission published a comprehensive consultation paper on the issue of statute law restatement in July.

Still on the issue of modernising the Statute Book, in June of this year the Government agreed to introduce a new electronic system for the making of statutory instruments and to place it under the management of the Government Supplies Agency. This new system, which had been successfully piloted by my Department prior to its adoption, is now the sole process by which statutory instruments can be made. It ensures that all statutory instruments are produced in a standard electronic format, which Departments then place on their websites as soon as the notice of their making appears in Iris Oifigiúil. This facilitates the faster and more accurate provision of statutory instruments and also enables those with responsibility for the maintenance of the on-line Statute Book to place them in the on-line Statute Book more quickly.

The better regulation unit commissioned the Economic and Social Research Institute to conduct a survey of business attitudes to regulation, which was published in March of this year. This comprehensive survey of over 800 companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, has been widely distributed.

Efforts are now being focused on actioning the findings of the survey. Specifically, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment established a high level group on business regulation, under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This group is working directly with business to look at ways of reducing unnecessary burdens arising from regulation. This is in line with the commitment in the programme for Government to ensure direct feedback from business on regulatory burdens. The work of this group will also help address the requirement in the spring European Council conclusions to put in place a national programme to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens.

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