Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 397: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps taken to implement the Commission's recommendation of 12 July 2004 on the transposition into national law of directives affecting the Internal Market; if the list of untransposed directives has been published on the internet as recommended by the Commission; and if so, where. [19130/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In advance of the Irish Presidency of the EU in 2004, the internal mechanisms of this and other relevant Departments and the procedures for monitoring the transposition of directives across Departments were reviewed and strengthened. In that regard, all Departments were largely following best practice as outlined in the Commission's recommendation even before it was adopted.

The Taoiseach has communicated to all Ministers the priority he attaches to the timely and correct transposition of EU legislation. His Department plays a direct co-ordinating role in monitoring progress in transposing EU Internal Market legislation. This monitoring is conducted through the interdepartmental co-ordinating committee on EU affairs, ICCEUA, the secretariat of which is in the Taoiseach's Department. The ICCEUA is made up of senior officials from all relevant Departments and is chaired by the Minister of State with responsibility for EU affairs. It reports directly to a Cabinet level committee chaired by the Taoiseach. The ICCEUA provides a high level forum to which Departments report their progress in transposing Internal Market legislation. The committee seeks to ensure that each directive is transposed by, if not before, the date for transposition. Where a directive is overdue for transposition, the Department concerned must give the ICCEUA a reason for the delay and a deadline for transposition.

The timely transposition of EU legislation is incorporated into Departmental strategy statements, business plans and the role profiles of individual officers under the Government's strategic management initiative. Management boards of the relevant key Departments keep the performance of their Departments in transposing EU legislation under review on a regular basis. In addition, the Department of the Taoiseach is in the process of integrating the principles of better regulation into the negotiation and transposition of EU directives and regulations.

My Department liaises regularly with other Departments, in particular the Department of the Taoiseach, on foot of information received from the Directorate-General for Internal Markets of the European Commission on issues with regard to transposition. My Department maintains an electronic database of Internal Market directives, which contains information on, inter alia, the officials responsible within the Department for the transposition of each directive and the deadlines for transposition. Much of the information in the database is accessible to the public via the Department's website. The ICCEUA is encouraging all Departments that have not already done so to establish a similar electronic database for their directives and a similar degree of transparency in so far as the public is concerned.