Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy that this is very important but I believe the handling of the matter would best be left to the House. It really is a matter for the House but section 7 is very important because it gives very specific powers to the Oireachtas.

To refer to the debate we just had, I will give a good illustration of why the House should be flexible in such matters. The Deputy may recall that several years ago an Oireachtas committee produced a study that considered the application of EU regulation in agriculture. The committee invited the Director General of the relevant section of the Commission to attend. When he did so with his staff the result was very interesting. He made the point that the Irish approach to adopting certain directives was very specific to our own Department and did not reflect a requirement of the relevant Directorate-General.

The manner in which this very important section will be brought into operation is really a matter for the Oireachtas. The House should pay some attention to drafting the rules on how this is handled. I refer to issues such as the Passerelle clause and the general issue of how the new powers will be operated. These are not matters that should be referred to in the legislation but they should be dealt with in detail by the House. It is for the House to set its own rules on these issues. It would, therefore, be unwise to accept the amendment.

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