Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

We are in 19th place out of 25 and perhaps the Minister of State would indicate the thinking in that regard. The Internal Market Scoreboard listed Ireland as one of the eight EU member states that had not met the target set for the implementation of Internal Market directives and stated that it faced 51 legal cases relating to its failure to adopt legislation in this important area. While the broader political body is almost unanimous in pointing out how committed we are to our membership of the European Union, our response to the implementation of many EU directives casts doubt on the validity of this claim.

Fine Gael believes strongly in the benefits of EU membership for Ireland. Therefore, we hope we progress the adoption and transposition of EU directives into law at a faster pace. We consider that our national failure to progress some directives results in our people losing out on some of the benefits due to flow from the directives. We hope this legislation will help expedite matters in this regard.

I, Senator Dardis and some other Senators are members of the Sub-Committee on EU Scrutiny. The committee does much excellent work and meets at 9.30 a.m. every second Thursday, far removed from the glare of the media. While the committee is quite effective, it possibly needs further resources to cater for these and further directives which will come before it. We will need assistance to get the work done. Over the course of 2005, for example, some 75% of the work of the sub-committee was spent on examining directives, regulations and decisions of the European Union. It is important the committee is beefed up. The decision to set up the sub-committee stemmed from the referendum on the Nice Treaty. It is working well but probably needs more assistance.

My attention has been drawn to section 3, which allows Ministers to implement EU law by way of statutory instrument. Will the Minister of State advise us further with regard to this section? The power to amend Irish domestic legislation is a new element. Does the Minister of State believe this provision will amount to the authority of the Oireachtas being usurped by individual Ministers? If the Oireachtas sees fit to pass legislation, can a Minister unilaterally undo that action even if it provides for the transposition of necessary European law? Will the Minister of State also give us his opinion on safeguards to be written into the proposal? Currently, a statutory instrument that transposes EU law can be challenged on the basis that the statutory instrument does not do its job. In light of section 3, would the Minister of State, the Department or the Government be averse to an additional proposal to delay the implementation of such an order for 21 Oireachtas sitting days, during which time a Member could raise an objection to it if it were warranted? The Minister of State might respond on this issue, which was brought to my notice.

I accept the necessity for the Bill, difficult as its language may appear. The Supreme Court judgements needed to be responded to and I hope this is a full response. At the end of the day, the more progress we can make in responding quickly and efficiently to EU directives and decisions, the better for the Irish people, as has proved to be the case in the past 30 years or so.