Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State. This is the first time under this Administration that I have had the opportunity to do so. I congratulate him on his appointment and wish him every success with his endeavours on behalf of us all. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill, which will hardly be considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nevertheless that does not dilute the level of importance attached to it or to the EU directives to which it relates.

The Chemicals Bill comes about as a result of a commitment under the programme for Government to implement the EU regulatory framework governing the manufacturing and use of chemicals in a way which does not impact on the competitiveness of our economy. The purpose of the Bill is to introduce an administrative framework for the enforcement of various EU chemicals regulations. There are no substantive rules on chemicals in the Bill as they are contained in the EU directives. I welcome the designation of a number of national authorities, including the Health and Safety Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Minister for Health and Children and the Revenue Commissioners to be responsible for specific areas of enforcement, drawing on the most relevant expertise and areas of competence across the system. Co-operation arrangements for national authorities are to be welcomed to carry out joint enforcement activities, to make the best use of our resources and to minimise administrative costs to business. They provide for strong co-operation between national authorities. We should retrospectively put this clause into all EU directives and aspects of our own legislation in order that we can have a joined-up approach to dealing with issues as they arise.

A range of enforcement powers aimed at encouraging compliance and discouraging non-compliance, including the issue of directions for improvement plans and contravention and prohibition notices and powers to apply to the courts for orders prohibiting certain activities, are also to be very much welcomed. I welcome the provision for the various penalties. The maximum penalty on summary conviction is a fine of up to €5,000, as we know, and-or six months imprisonment and for indictable offences it is €3 million and-or two years imprisonment. There is also a provision for on-the-spot fines of €2,000 for minor offences. It is important we have in place the appropriate penalties and disincentives for breaches of legislation because we are talking about matters related to due diligence and health and safety in the workplace, including manufacturing environments where, all to often, we have ignored these. We have seen internationally the kind of accidents and issues that can arise as a result. The penalties proposed here are welcome.

I also welcome the provision to make public certain information in the interests of protecting human health or the environment and the protection of whistleblowers in the event of breaches of chemical law being reported in good faith. My colleague Senator Feeney mentioned the name and shame tactic. Another colleague, Senator Leyden particularly likes that phrase and uses it on many occasions across various headings. In this context it is welcome because we must encourage this if we are to achieve the goals as set out in the Bill.

There are two main policy objectives in the Chemicals Bill, namely, to achieve a high level of compliance and to minimise the administrative cost to industry. As anybody in business or industry knows, this burden is increasing on an ongoing basis and any steps which help alleviate the increasing costs to business that are not directly related to production and profit are welcome. To achieve the various objectives, the Chemicals Bill aims to provide a clear regulatory framework for business and increased co-operation between the various national authorities. It will be involved with enforcement, which should support high levels of compliance and alleviate any unnecessary administrative cost to business.

I welcome the Bill. In the Dáil debate on this legislation there was a consensus approach and some amendments were accepted. We can all proceed together. There will be no divisions today because there is broad support for the Bill, and rightly so. As I said, the Bill will not win any prizes for literature but is vitally important in improving the working and regulatory environment related to chemicals in industry. It seeks to reduce the burden of administrative costs in that area for business and that is to be welcomed. Like the Minister and other colleagues, I commend the Bill to the House.