Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 217: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the occasions on which he did not carry out any form of regulatory impact analysis on statutory instruments, Bills and EU directives for the years 2006, 2007 and to date in 2008; the reason for this decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23867/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Since 2006, my Department has included in its Annual Report, details of the Department's legislative activity during that year including Statutory Instruments, Bills and EU Directives, together with information on the application of Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIA) in each case. Copies of the 2006 and 2007 Annual Reports are available in the Oireachtas library.

Following the Government decision of 21 June 2005, a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) must be applied to:

i. All proposals for primary legislation involving changes to the regulatory framework (subject to some exceptions);

ii. Significant Statutory Instruments;

iii. Proposals for EU Directives and significant EU regulations when they are published by the European Commission.

In cases where a decision was taken not to conduct a RIA, this was either because the legislation had been initiated prior to the Government decision of 21 June 2005 or, with reference to the RIA guidelines, the legislation was not deemed sufficiently significant to warrant such an assessment.