Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 290: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her Department was required to take part in the interdepartmental group on administrative burden reduction; if her Department has yet listed information obligations that her Department's regulations impose on business; if so, the number of information obligations listed; if her Department has yet assessed which requirements are the most burdensome; if her Department has measured the actual cost to business of the most burdensome requirements and, if so, the total cost [40353/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The Department of Health and Children is a member of the Inter-Departmental Group, chaired by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, on Administrative Burden Reduction.

To date the Department has identified 11 Information Obligations (I.O.s) arising from primary legislation and a further 8 Statutory Instruments in the area of food safety from which I.O.s may arise. These have yet to be ranked by reference to the level of impact on business.

In order to ensure consistency in measuring costs to business and reduce costs to individual Departments, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation has suggested that consultants be engaged to measure those I.O.s for all Departments and Agencies. A proposal in this regard will be put to Government shortly.