Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

None of us wishes to see the passage of the Bill being delayed and all of us who spoke on Second Stage yesterday expressed the hope that this legislation will not be necessary. Since last night's vote in Westminster, however, things are looking more bleak in terms of the prospects of a no-deal Brexit.However, I will use this opportunity now that we are discussing the issue of the review and ministerial powers to raise with the Tánaiste a point I raised on Second Stage and which my party leader, Deputy Howlin, raised in the Dáil, which is the issue of delegated powers and concerns that, in some respects, the Bill may go a little too far in providing Ministers with power to effectively make primary legislation. I will not go over the argument I made on Second Stage, but case law here requires that where policies are being changed, that is done through primary legislation. I will not press the point with the Tánaiste but it is one about which we raised concerns in the Dáil and I just wanted to reiterate it. It seems a sensible idea that one would scrutinise, in particular, what Ministers have done under the auspices of the statute that seems to go beyond the normal empowerment of providing delegated legislation which simply puts into effect principles that are contained in primary legislation through statutory instruments. This is a concern we had but the position of the Labour Party has been that we will facilitate the passage of the Bill and not seek to obstruct it anyway. I wanted to put that point again on the record.