Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 149: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of staff in terms of whole time equivalents who have been assigned by her to give effect to the commitment to assess, measure and then reduce by 25% administrative burdens imposed by her Department's regulations to business; the financial resources that have been spent on such work to date in 2008; the expected expenditure for the remainder of 2008; the budget for 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45943/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Better Regulation agenda is supported by the Company Law Reform and Business Regulation Section, which is a Unit within my Department's Commerce, Consumers and Competition Division. The Division is headed up by an Assistant Secretary. The role of the Section is to modernise and simplify the Irish company law code; support the work of the Company Law Review Group; drive the cross Department effort to reduce the administrative burden on business by 25% by 2012; and support the work of the High-level Group on Business Regulation.

The total staff complement of the Section is 7: 1 Principal Officer, 2 Assistant Principals, 1 Higher Executive Officer, 2 Executive Officers and 1 Staff Officer.

In addition to the foregoing, the Section can call upon the resources of Forfás, as appropriate, in carrying out their reduction in administrative burden work. Furthermore, Regulatory Impact Assessments are carried out, as appropriate, in cases of new legislative/regulatory proposals by the relevant sections of my Department.

The High-level Group on Business Regulation has a budget of €60,000 for 2008, of which some €36,000 is expected to be spent by year end; for 2009, the budget is €60,000.