Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The 25% target for the reduction of administrative burdens arising from national legislation by 2012 is under the aegis of the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, who has overall responsibility for achieving that target. In this context the Department is leading a cross-departmental project to measure the administrative burdens arising from all national legislation. The approach and methodology to be used are currently being devised and work across Departments will be co-ordinated and reported on annually by the Tánaiste.

Parallel with that, the high level group on business regulation, which consists of business representatives and officials, has been examining ways of reducing unnecessary administrative burdens in five priority areas identified by Irish business as being the most burdensome. These are taxation, health and safety, environment law, statistical returns and employment and company law. That is in line with the commitment in the programme to ensure direct feedback from business on regulatory burdens. The first report of the high level group on business regulation was published in August. A number of individual administrative burdens were measured, identifying over €20 million of savings for business. Furthermore, the group is working to support co-operation between Departments and agencies across Government with a view to simplifying procedures and reducing duplication. That work will continue to result in the reduction of costs for business as well as identifying opportunities for meaningful efficiency improvements in the public sector.

The twin processes outlined above provide for a cross-Government target-driven process while at the same time allowing a forum for specific issues to be tabled and dealt with as they are identified by the business community. The regulatory impact analysis process will be used to measure the cost of any potential administrative burdens arising from future regulations.

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