Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Recent reports have criticised both Houses of the Oireachtas for not passing many laws and I do not believe many Bills have come to this House lately. I was surprised last week, therefore, to come across a survey of 49 countries by the University of Jerusalem that found Ireland regulated more than all the others. Ireland has 215 organisations with statutory powers and 52 bodies dedicated to regulation. In 1989 we regulated in only two areas but now we seem to have become the world's greatest nanny state. I am as guilty as others because we all have called on the Government to introduce various new regulations and laws. We are in serious danger of making our country very unattractive to investors, whether indigenous or foreign. If we continue to regulate and put in stipulations and regulations in regard to everything, we will make ourselves quite unattractive in the future.

One of the first things President Barroso did when he came to power in Europe three years ago was to make Europe more attractive for competitors in the future by abolishing 70 different regulations he considered were no longer needed. I ask the Deputy Leader to draw the attention of the Government to the fact that we are now excessively regulated to such an extent that we make ourselves very unattractive to investors, both indigenous and foreign. I suggest we look again at the possibility of getting rid of some of these regulations to make Ireland less of a nanny state than it has become.