Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator has made a fair point. While a directive is something Ireland, along with every other member state, commits to transpose and implement in various ways through our national parliaments, we do not have to implement a guideline, but if we want Commission officials to approve our scheme from a state aid point of view, we have to be in compliance with the rules. This did not need to be transposed into domestic law in the sense that it did not require a statutory instrument, legislative change or even pre-legislative scrutiny. This is the Commission saying it is the policeman on state aid and if we want our scheme approved, we need to be in compliance with state aid rules. It is the approving body and these are its guidelines. That is the difference.

The Commission has raised the importance of being in compliance a number of times and the Minister and the Department have left it as late as possible to bring in these further restrictions to ensure we are in compliance but we have to do it now or we run the risk of jeopardising the entire scheme.