Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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127. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform whether it is a requirement for all policy review groups to conduct a regulatory impact analysis prior to submitting recommendations which require legislative changes. [10781/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Regulatory impact analysis (RIA) is a tool used by Departments to assess the costs, benefits and qualitative impacts of regulatory proposals. The use of RIAs has been mandatory in relation to proposals for primary legislation as well as significant secondary legislation and EU regulations since 2005. Individual Departments have responsibility for conducting and preparing RIAs.

The criteria for the development of RIAs are set out comprehensively in the Revised RIA Guidelines (2009), published by the Department of the Taoiseach on its website.  These guidelines state that the work of policy review groups should include a RIA where primary legislation or significant regulatory change is being proposed. The level of detail required and the depth of the analytical approach depends on the significance of the proposal.