Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 159: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs 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. [23869/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department engages fully with the 'Regulatory Impact Analysis' (RIA) process which has been in place since 2005. The RIA process assesses the impact a body of legislation could have in changing existing regulatory obligations for business. Since the introduction in June 2005 of Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), my Department has carried out two RIA screenings on:

the British-Irish Agreement (Amendment) Act 2006, which related to the mandate and functions of the Special EU Programmes Body;

the Passports Act 2008, which sets out specific legislative basis for the regulation and issuing of passports, and

In addition to the legislation detailed above, my Department also sponsored a number of European Union related legislation during the period in question:

the European Communities Act 2006, which provided for our ratification of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU;

the European Communities Act 2007, which improved and modernised the way EU legislation is transposed into Irish law; and

the Twenty-Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2008, in relation to the ratification process for the Lisbon Reform Treaty.

In these instances, because of their technical nature, it was considered that RIAs were not required. As the Deputy will be aware, RIAs are only required for proposed legislation involving a change to the regulatory environment.