Written answers
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Regulatory Impact Assessment Data
Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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320. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide an update on all regulatory impact statements carried out on Bills in his Department since this Government took office to date; and if he will list these Bills in tabular form. [41597/13]
Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of Regulatory Impact Assessments undertaken by my Department since 2011 are set out as follows.
RIA Undertaken (Name of Bill/Act/Regulations) | Details of Regulatory Impact Assessment |
|---|---|
| County Enterprise Boards (Dissolution) Bill, 2013 | The RIA was undertaken to consider options on how best to implement the Government Decision of 17 April 2012 to dissolve the County Enterprise Boards and restructure the existing micro enterprise support structures with a view to creating an enhanced national micro enterprise support model to be delivered through Local Enterprise Offices. The RIA concluded that the proposed Bill is the appropriate way to give legal certainty to the Government Decision. The CEB (Dissolution) Bill was published on 31 July, 2013, and the RIA is available on my Department's website. |
| Microenterprise Loan Fund Bill 2012 | This RIA was prepared by my Department in April, 2012. The objective of this legislation is to establish a Microenterprise Loan Fund and to provide for Social Finance Foundation to manage and control the Microenterprise Loan Fund on behalf of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. It empowers the Minister to pay monies provided by the Oireachtas into the fund and to accept gifts of moneys for allocation to the Fund. The objective of the fund is to provide loans to start-up, newly established, or growing microenterprises, thereby facilitating job creation and retention across the economy in all microenterprises with commercially viable proposals that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by banks. The Microenterprise Loan Fund is not intended to replace any current bank. |
| Credit Guarantee Bill 2012 | This RIA was carried out in October, 2011. The ultimate objective of this regulatory proposal is to empower the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to establish a targeted Temporary Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme. The legislation will empower the Minister to give a loan guarantee, designate a lending institution as a participating lending institution, set eligibility criteria for borrowers in such lending institutions, set loan conditions, set out requirements in respect of liability of the Minister regarding payment of guarantees, to require adequate monitoring arrangements and evaluation, to review and revoke the scheme and to assign a contractor to oversee the operation of the Scheme. The objective of the Scheme is to provide a Government guarantee to the lender of 75 per cent on eligible individual loans to viable businesses, which is paid to the lender on the unrecovered outstanding balance on a loan in the event of an SME defaulting on the loan repayments. The purpose of the scheme is to encourage additional lending to SMEs, not to substitute for conventional lending. It is not a grant, nor is it support for ailing businesses. The Scheme is intended to address specific market failures that prevent bank lending to some commercially viable businesses by providing a level of guarantee to banks against losses on qualifying loans to job-creating firms. All decision making at the level of the individual loan will be fully devolved to the participating lenders. |
| Companies Bill 2012 | A RIA was published with the Company Law Review Group's General Scheme of the Companies Consolidation and Reform Bill in 2007. An updated version of that RIA was published on my Department's website following publication of the Companies Bill 2012. |
| Friendly Societies and Industrial and Provident Societies Bill 2013 | A RIA was undertaken to explore the various policy options regarding amendments to two codes of legislation, the Friendly Societies Acts and the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts. The main amendment in the area of friendly societies provides for the closure of registration of new societies. The amendments in the area of industrial and provident societies are aimed at easing the regulatory burden on co-operative societies and making examinership, currently available only to companies, accessible to co-operative societies. The RIA was published on my Department's website on publication of the Bill in July 2013. |
| Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012 | The RIA was published in May 2012 and is available on my Department's website. |
| Competition (Amendment) Bill 2011 | The RIA was prepared in conjunction with the preparation of the Bill which gives effect to an EU/IMF Programme commitment. The RIA was published on 29 September 2011 online on my Department's website. |
| Consumer Protection and Competition Bill | The RIA was prepared in conjunction with the preparation of the Bill. The RIA will be published in conjunction with the publication of the Bill. |
| Industrial Relations (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2011 | This Bill is to provide for reform of statutory wage setting mechanisms (REAs and JLCs). |
In respect of legislation currently being prepared by my Department, the following 2 RIAs have also been published.
RIA Undertaken (Name of Bill/Act/Regulations) | Details of Regulatory Impact Assessment |
|---|---|
| Workplace Relations Bill | A RIA was undertaken to explore the various policy options regarding the introduction of legislation to consolidate the existing employment and equality dispute resolution and compliance and enforcement bodies. The RIA was published in July 2012. The General Scheme of the Workplace Relations Bill outlines proposals which will deliver a root-and-branch reform of the State's existing employment rights and industrial relations structures. The current complex structure involving five bodies will be replaced with a rationalised two-tier system compromising two bodies (the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court), supported by a single shared-services administration |
| Employment Permits Bill | A RIA was prepared and submitted to Government in April 2012 on the options for a regulatory proposal to provide for more flexibility and targeted instruments in support of the economy's skills needs.An up-dated RIA was published on my Department's website in January 2013 seeking submissions in relation to the proposed legislation. |
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