Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the procedures operating in his Department for identifying when a Bill requires a poverty impact and or regulatory impact analysis and when it is exempt; the procedures for conducting and publishing that analysis, when applicable; and if he will identify, by rank or position, the officials responsible for managing and making decisions on this process. [33982/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Government Departments follow procedures outlined in the Cabinet Handbook. These require that, where proposals for legislation relate to matters on which Government policy has not already been laid down, or where they involve a new development or a material departure from existing policy, they should first be submitted to the Government by way of a memorandum for a decision in principle on the policy at issue, or with the draft Heads of a Bill.

A Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) must accompany any such memorandum seeking approval for legislative proposals which involve changes to the regulatory framework. It is also a requirement that Government Departments assess policies and programmes at design, implementation and review stages for their likely impact on persons in poverty or at risk of falling into poverty.

Within my Department, there is consideration of the potential impacts on poverty, or as to whether a RIA is required or not in the context of any proposed legislation, at an early stage in the policy development process within the relevant Business Unit, which is headed at Principal Officer level, and the matter is kept under review as the legislation or policy approach develops. Completed RIAs are published on the Department's website at www.environ.ie.