Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Senators for their contributions to this debate and, in particular, I welcome Senator White's support for the work in seeking to build international confidence. Through her family connections, she is very familiar with the competitive environment in which we are working. It is true that one of the strengths of Ireland over a long period of time is the consistent political support for an open approach to business investment. We have seen a number of changes in government over the years but a consistent approach has been maintained and investors like that certainty. It is an instructive issue when we come to consider the referendum on which we must vote very shortly. That sense of certainty and political consistency that people know how the Government will treat them over a long period of time is very important, in particular for industries where there is a long lead time on their investments as applies in many sectors, especially the pharmaceutical sector. That level of long-term certainty is vital.

I take Senator White's point about the address by Sean O'Driscoll. I have heard him speak before and I will familiarise myself with the speech he made to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education to see if we can mine it for practical suggestions.

Senator Clune raised the issue of the unsatisfactory nature of these differences. That is well recognised. I will have to check whether we have the potential during our Presidency of the Councils next year to, in any way, advance the reconciliation of the two systems. Undoubtedly, if that level of cost is being experienced by companies, we need to ensure there is a permanent solution to it, even though we are providing a temporary solution to it here.

I welcome Senator Quinn's point about the initiative for regulatory compliance. That is a practical suggestion and I will see if we can implement it. As the Senator rightly suggested, the provision of, say, a two-month period with the opportunity to consider and comment on the regulatory environment would be very useful. From my Department's perspective, we are very close to delivering the target of a 25% reduction in administrative burdens by the end of the year. Other Departments are applying measurements to the level of administrative burden they create. Where those Departments or agencies have not delivered the 25% target, which is an EU-wide one, they are engaged in developing specific proposals to deliver it. It is an important benchmark which we need to achieve by the end of 2012.

However, this is a continuing area for debate and Senator Quinn rightly pointed out that we need to go beyond the administrative side. Even if we minimise the administrative cost of certain regulations, are they all still necessary? That is a deeper issue and it is also exercising a lot of minds across Europe. There is the issue of what the European target will be after the 2012 target expires. It is very much focused on the narrow administrative side rather than the broader issue of whether the compliance burden is unnecessarily large because we have unnecessary regulations. The Senator's suggestion is one I can go along with to see if we can factor that into our action plan for 2013.

In concrete terms we are already undertaking an audit of licences for the retail sector to see what licences there are and to see if we can simplify them. The Minister of State, Deputy Perry, is undertaking that audit.

I confess that I am not an expert in the marine sector which does not fall centrally within my area. The logic of the statistics the Senator produced, that we only generate 1% of GDP even though we have the highest ratio of sea to land, would suggest there is an untapped opportunity. One of the elements of our action plan for jobs is to look at those sectors. We have identified a number of sectors in the 2012 plan which we seek to develop. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, is acutely interested in this sector.

Wind is another sector in which there are huge opportunities. We have a natural advantage in that sector. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, is developing refit price proposals - I do not have the details before me - for onshore wind and biomass delivery into the grid which incorporates incentives into the system. Clearly, incentives constitute a gamble as one is committing to a higher price for a fuel now and asking electricity users to pay more in the hope and expectation that the technology in the long term will be more competitive. Therefore, there is a cost benefit analysis to be done by the State in each such decision. One is making a gamble on the direction of oil prices in asking industry and households to pay more in the interest of a gain later.

here is a balance to be struck in such calculations because we must be conscious of the here and now with many businesses under pressure. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, has to strike a balance in deciding these issues. Clearly, there are many who see enormous opportunities in Ocean Wind where, undoubtedly Ireland has a competitive edge, but the ambition for Ireland is to get into the export market. The real issue for Ireland is to establish a basis on which we would get the potential to export in the wind sector. As I understand it - I am not speaking ex cathedra - the key is having access to other grids that would make a high proportion of wind on our grid cost effective. We need the export markets. As large amounts of wind cannot be generated for a confined grid, the extensions are required. There is a whole economic strategy in developing the wind sector and there are huge opportunities. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, is committed to developing a renewable energy policy which will provide a direction for that debate.

In the conflict resolution territories, there are opportunities but I am not in a position to comment on the scope of them. However, I will take note of what Senators have said.

Senator James Heffernan raised the issue of savings from the reform and whether we can achieve investments for Ireland. Clearly these issues are not linked. To create a linkage would undoubtedly be illegal. What I can say is that many of the companies we are facilitating are companies that have made significant investments in the recent past and continue to look at expansions in Ireland. It is a stand-alone good regulatory practice that we who are host to many companies from the US should seek to have an accountancy environment that is supportive of their needs. Rather than look for a quid pro quo we must recognise that our whole story is about making it easy to do business in Ireland and the more effectively we can do that, as Senator Feargal Quinn said, the more we will attract people to locate.

In regard to the new approach to audit, and whether we could have a more consistent approach, at EU level new proposals are emerging, some of which are controversial. Some would argue that the pendulum is swinging too far whereby if companies are conducting audits they cannot engage in other activities, the requirements of turnover of auditors, and the range of companies in which there would be intense audit requirements. A debate is taking place to strike a balance to ensure the flaws in audit, exposed during the financial crisis, are corrected but not to introduce unduly restrictive requirements that we would regret in time. This debate could come to fruition during our Presidency. It may be that we are in the business of banging heads together when it comes to working out those audit rules. We would be seeking to get a proportionate response. As Senator Clune said, in the financial regulatory area we have sought a balanced response to get risk based regulation proportionate to the risks provided. There is a need to do the same in the audit area. I do not understate the difficulty of getting that because there are many interests involved which have to be balanced.

I appreciate the support in the House for the Bill. It makes good sense and it is part of a wider agenda to create a good business environment. I thank Senators for their contributions and support for the measure.