Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 6, inclusive, together.

Progress on implementation of the OECD's Report on Regulatory Reform in Ireland, published in 2001, has been reported on many times in this House, particularly in the context of the follow-up to the Government's 2004 White Paper on regulation, Regulating Better. The regulatory reform or better regulation agenda covers a wide range of actions and initiatives and individual Ministers are responsible for reporting on those recommendations relating specifically to their sectors. The better regulation unit in my Department is tasked with driving better regulation across Government and supports a number of key projects in this regard.

In October of last year, the Government published a statement on economic regulation, which provides a framework for the future development of economic regulation in Ireland. The statement covers issues such as governance and accountability; the appropriateness of regulatory structures and mandates; cost effectiveness and engagement with stakeholders. It commits relevant Ministers to reviewing the roles and mandates of regulators at least every five years and they will also have to approve planned expenditure by regulators, including industry levies, following consultation with stakeholders.

The Minister for Transport will bring forward legislation to merge the Commission for Aviation Regulation and the regulatory functions of the Irish Aviation Authority with the National Transport Authority to create a single transport regulator.

In line with the commitment in the Government statement to initiate an Annual regulatory forum, I met key regulators, the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency, together with the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills and other relevant Ministers at the end of February to discuss the implementation of the Government statement and the contribution that improved competition and regulation across sectors can make to economic recovery and renewal.

Arising from these discussions, it was decided that a regulatory liaison group involving senior departmental officials and key regulators would meet regularly to progress key issues. In this context, relevant Departments are currently working with regulators to stress test regulatory frameworks to ensure they are sufficiently robust to be able to respond to major shocks and changes in their sectors and in the wider economy. It is expected the Government will receive a report on these exercises before the end of the year. The regulatory liaison group is also examining issues relating to regulatory capacity and training and my Department is actively engaging with the academic community in this regard.

The better regulation unit also provides support to Departments conducting regulatory impact analysis, RIA, on legislative proposals. It is an important process that allows Departments to assess the potential costs, benefits and impacts of proposed regulation in a way which is both transparent and accessible to stakeholders. An independent review of the operation of RIA was published in June 2008. It acknowledged that good progress had been made in embedding the process since its original introduction but also highlighted some areas where change was needed. Arising from the review's recommendations, revised RIA guidelines were published last year, which take account, in particular, of the need for improved quantitative analysis and for the increased use of RIA to evaluate draft EU legislative proposals. Following consultation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, specific information was also included in the revised guidelines on the measurement of compliance and administrative costs on business.

Some 320 officials have undertaken the two day RIA training course to date, with a further course scheduled for September. The course content was reconfigured in 2009 to take account of the findings of the independent review and is available not only to departmental officials but also to individuals working in independent regulators. The better regulation unit also delivers shorter RIA modules and an on-line RIA training tool to ensure the maximum possible number of officials are reached.

In addition to the work of my own Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation is leading a Government project to reduce the administrative burdens on business arising from existing national legislation by 25% by 2012 in line with a similar target at EU level. A number of simplification workshops have already taken place to allow stakeholders to make suggestions for red tape reductions. In parallel, the high level group on business regulation is driving efforts in the key areas of taxation, health and safety, environment law, statistical returns, and employment and company law. The group is chaired by the Secretary General in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, and includes business and union representatives as well as high level officials from relevant Government Departments. The group last year asked the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to bring together a group of regulatory enforcement bodies to look at the issue of risk-based enforcement and expects to receive a report on this matter later this year.

The OECD is currently conducting a review of Ireland's regulatory systems and processes. The review is being conducted as part of a set of similar reviews covering the original 15 EU member states which is being funded by the EU Commission and covers issues such as regulatory impact analysis, administrative burden reduction and approaches to enforcement. My Department is co-ordinating the Irish Government input into the review and it is currently expected that the report will be completed later this year.

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