Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

In March, the European Council agreed that administrative burdens arising from EU legislation should be reduced by 25% by 2012. Taking into account the different starting points and traditions, the Council invited member states to set their own national targets of comparable ambition within their spheres of competence by 2008.

Prior to the Taoiseach's departure for the spring European Council meeting, the Government agreed that I should lead the cross-departmental and agency drive and put in place a mechanism to drive the agenda at national level. As part of this effort, I established a high level group on business regulation earlier this year under the chairmanship of my Department's Secretary General. The group comprises representatives of Departments, governmental agencies, the business sector and ICTU. It has decided to focus initially on ways to reduce, simplify and eliminate unnecessary administrative burdens and associated costs in the five priority areas identified in the Business Regulation Forum's April report and to capture the savings arising from that work on a case-by-case basis. The five priority areas identified by the BRF are taxation, statistical reporting, environmental regulations, health and safety regulations and company and employment law. I expect the group to submit an initial report to me by July 2008.

In submitting its report last April, the BRF did not recommend the introduction of the standard cost model as employed in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which pioneered this approach. Instead, the BRF recommended:

Given the resource implications associated with undertaking a full baseline measurement exercise, a prioritised and selective approach would be the most realistic way forward for Ireland. In line with this recommendation, the high level group is pursuing a prioritised and selective approach.

International evidence states that the World Bank's Doing Business 2008 report ranked Ireland eighth of 178 in terms of ease of starting and running a business. Of our EU partners, only the UK and Denmark are ahead of us. Recently, I took a number of initiatives to help to reduce the administrative burdens on business, including legislation introduced at the end of last year to raise the audit exemption thresholds applying to small companies in respect of turnover and balance sheet to €7.3 million and €3.6 million, respectively. The previous thresholds were €1.5 million and €1.9 million. This will remove the compulsory annual audit cost from the large number of companies qualifying for the enhanced exemption levels.

In company law, we approved the general scheme of the companies consolidation reform Bill as prepared by the company law review group. The Bill is being drafted and will consolidate the 13 Companies Acts into one. In addition to a number of significant proposed reforms, the Bill will make it easier for firms and practitioners to understand and comply with the law relating to the incorporation and operation of companies in Ireland.

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