Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

The OECD report, Regulatory Reform in Ireland, was published in 2001. In response to the OECD's report, the Government published the White Paper, Regulating Better, in 2004 which provides the framework for the better regulation agenda. Some of the key areas outlined in the OECD report and the White Paper relate to specific sectoral issues and relevant Ministers are responsible for reporting directly to the House on progressing those recommendations. The better regulation unit in my Department is tasked with the overall promotion of the better regulation agenda across Government.

In the context of this ongoing work, I would like to briefly outline progress in the three particular areas of regulatory impact analysis, modernisation of the Statute Book and improving the economic regulatory environment. Since June 2005, regulatory impact analysis, RIA, must be applied to all proposals for primary legislation, significant statutory instruments, draft EU directives and significant EU regulations. RIA is a tool which is used for the structured exploration of different options to address particular policy issues and for the consideration of the impacts associated with these options.

The report of the independent review of the operation of regulatory impact analysis was published in July 2008 and is available on the better regulation website. The report indicates that, overall, good progress has been made on the implementation of regulatory impact analysis across Departments, with some 74 produced between June 2005 and February 2008. The Government has agreed to implement the recommendations contained in the report which concern the RIA model itself, its use by Departments and its management across Government.

The better regulation unit of my Department is working closely with the interdepartmental RIA network, which it chairs, to implement some of the report's recommendations including the preparation of revised guidelines, training materials and publication of legislation and regulatory impact analyses on departmental websites. Of course, while the RIA network provides a useful focal point for Departments to learn from each other in terms of RIA best practice, a number of the report's recommendations are ultimately for Departments themselves to implement.

Good progress has also been made in the area of modernisation of the Statute Book. The statute law revision project, which is steered by my Department in partnership with the Office of the Attorney General, has already resulted in the repeal of thousands of redundant and obsolete Acts. The current phase focuses on pre-1922 primary legislation. The heads of a new statute law revision Bill were approved by Government on 29 April 2008. It is intended that the Bill, dealing with local and personal Acts up to and including 1850, and private Acts up to and including 1750, will be published by March of this year. Following the Bill's publication and enactment, further elements of the project will be postponed pending the availability of the necessary funding.

The Law Reform Commission is also undertaking a programme of statute law restatement which will make legislation more accessible by providing, in the case of selected Acts, a single text that incorporates all amendments made to date. The commission published a report on statute law restatement last July in which it proposes to complete restatements of up to 40 Acts.

An independent review was initiated last year as part of the efforts to fulfil the commitment in the programme for Government to review the economic regulatory environment. Work on the review has been overseen by an interdepartmental group, chaired by my Department. The independent benchmarking review is being conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in a partnership with Compecon Limited. It comprehends the key economic sectors of energy, communications, transport, financial services, and health and safety. Each of the sectors is being examined against a number of individually selected comparator countries in line with the terms of reference of the review. It is expected that the review will be completed shortly.

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