Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister stated when regulations are made they will be laid before the House, and if we manage to get the House to have a debate on it and we are in the majority we will have an opportunity to nullify it. I am trying to avoid this situation in the first place by trying to ensure, not only with regard to social welfare legislation, that where regulations are made they go before committees of the House for discussion. We should get into this practice and it is in line with the new method of working in the House with the pre-legislative stage. I understand from what the Minister stated that she is not inclined to do so on this occasion, but I ask her in future discussions around the Cabinet table on Dáil reform that this mechanism is examined.

As 11 Members of the Houses and sometimes more sit on the committee, this means 11 different sets of eyes are available in this regard. Moreover, every Member of the House is entitled to attend the committee. Members can then try to spot where regulations may not be fully conversant with life outside. As Deputy O'Dea observed in respect of the anomalies that arise, in the case of anomalies on how the family income supplement, FIS, works, for example, one sometimes only finds out a year later when one or two cases arise, after which one may come across six or seven cases. Sometimes, the Deputies on this side of the House or even on the Government backbenches can spot these anomalies in advance but it is too late because by the time they see the regulations, they have been laid before the House. I have been in the Oireachtas for 12 years and in that time have never seen a regulation that has been laid before the Houses brought before the House and overturned. Such regulations sit there until such time as new regulations are made.

Consequently, it is a pity the Minister is not inclined to accept this proposal. It is like some of my other proposals made in the past, in that I will continue to make them until somebody listens at some stage and hopefully Members will get a system in which Parliament is regulating better, rather than simply the Department and the Minister.

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