Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 32:

In page 18, line 34, after "which" to insert "Chapter 1 of".

I will set out the background to this. The EU fluorinated greenhouse gas regulation No. 517/2014 requires people and companies working on fluorinated greenhouse gases, F gases, equipment to be certified. The type of equipment involved includes electrical switch machinery, fire suppression, solvents, refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps and motor vehicles. People and companies working on this in a range of areas are required to be certified. Traditionally, both individuals and companies have been certified in the UK by the competent authorities' certification bodies in the UK. The reason we are introducing this amendment is that we were advised by the Attorney General that it would be optimal to have primary legislation to provide for the form of recognition for these UK certified individuals and companies rather than leave it to secondary legislation.

Amendment No. 32 inserts the new Chapter 1 into the Bill. Amendment No. 33 provides the various definitions.

Amendment No. 34 provides that an individual who immediately before the relevant date holds a valid certificate issued by a certification body in the United Kingdom under Article 5 of the Commission regulation of April 2008 in respect of an activity referred to in Article 1, which are the activities I mentioned earlier relating to refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps, motor vehicles, electrical switching and so forth, will be deemed to hold an equivalent certificate which is to be recognised in Ireland under that relevant section. Subsection (2) of that section provides that persons or companies will be given six months during which they can continue to operate with the UK certificate as recognised, but during that six months they will be required within the first four months to apply to the relevant agency, or the Minister in the case of a company, to get Irish certification. During the six-month period they must apply within four months and the agency, which in this case will be the EPA, will issue a certificate to them validating and providing an Irish certificate within six months.

It is more restricted in the case of a company. This is in the area of refrigeration and fire suppressants. In their case the same rules will apply about the equivalency of a certificate from the UK. The companies will also have six months during which they can continue to operate, and during that period they will have four months within which to apply. They apply to the Minister for certification. They will also be required, as is the case under the present arrangement, to seek annual renewal from the Minister each year. That is the current recognised approach. The reason the Minister is the person to whom the application is made is that currently this type of vetting of certification is assigned to a private entity. It is up to the Minister to work out the contractual arrangements with that private entity, which will carry out the necessary vetting of applicants.

This is a legislative measure to get over a gap in mutual recognition. Currently, there is mutual recognition of certificates within the EU so a UK certificate is valid throughout the EU. However, if the UK crashes out of the EU and the certificates cease to be recognised under mutual recognition, we must put this provision in place to ensure that people working in these important areas have the necessary certification and that the public have that assurance with regard to those who will be doing that type of work.

I commend the amendments to the House.

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