Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree with what the Minister has said for a number of reasons. What I propose would not require the approval of a committee but it could discuss a regulation. There was a situation where I have had to introduce emergency legislation and it was passed in a day. The Government had a similar experience recently. If an emergency regulation had to be introduced, I am sure it would be facilitated by the House and with the way the Oireachtas works the Government has a majority in the committees. The idea of making a regulation and then possibly annulling it does not allow for the amendment of it.

The introduction of a regulation to set fees for Rossaveal Port, which come under the remit of the Minister's Department, arose during the term of this Government but on examination it was found to be riddled with inconsistencies. When I raised it at the committee I was told that the regulation had to be made and that I would have to get the Minister to annul it. I have no doubt if the Minister had put that regulation before us we would have pointed out to him that there were many inconsistencies in it. I think he would have accepted the logic of our argument, but as a consequence of what happened, that are many difficulties with it. The idea of a regulation being made and then annulled is not as good as introducing a draft regulation, debating it and making it in its original form or amending it. If we did that, we would avoid many difficulties.

The practice of being asked to introduce a measure at five minutes to, half a minute to, or one minute to midnight is endemic in the system. The person presenting it could have had it for two years. The Minister may wind up having items landed on his desk at 5 o'clock of a Friday evening and being told that they are very urgent. I quickly disposed of matters except in such circumstances. I would have asked the person presenting the matter when he or she received it and if he or she had received it six months or a year ago, my response would have been that I would take a similar time to decide on the matter. Normally I would clear a matter overnight but I was wary of the five minutes to midnight syndrome in terms of a person presenting a matter very late at night having had it for a long time. People quickly got the message not to try that one with me. It is a very bad feature of the system and it should be avoided. There is no excuse for people having European material and not bringing it forward. That has been happening for years and we have all fought that battle. Presumably the Minister is fighting the same battle as I fought against leaving everything to the last minute and then rushing a measure through because somebody is chasing it up because of the pressure of meeting a deadline.

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