Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State has previous experience in this area, although I accept he is dealing with this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Department of Health and Children and therefore, cannot make any definite commitments now. I am somewhat confused by the reply given. One sentence refers to the introduction of regulations, while the following one refers to the introduction of legislation. Is a ministerial order different from a regulation and does a regulation have to be based on legislation? If we have the intention of making this substance illegal on the basis of the decision of the Council of Ministers in March, why should people be exposed to it from now until next March? If the provision needs to be embedded in deeper legislation, could the Minister introduce a ministerial order to achieve an interim solution? I apologise for not knowing the difference between ministerial orders, regulations and legislation, but the latter two terms were included in two sentences of the Minister of State's reply and I thought there might have been a difference between one and the other.