Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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182. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of all applications made by his Department to the Oireachtas Business Committee to waive pre-legislative scrutiny of primary and secondary legislation sponsored or initiated by his Department from 1 January 2017 to date; the outcomes of such applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37893/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department has applied to waive pre-legislative scrutiny in respect of two items of primary legislation since January 2017. The first item of legislation was the Radiological Protection Bill 2018 and the second item of legislation was the Inland Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017.

Pre-legislative scrutiny was waived on 2 occasions for the Radiological Protection Bill 2018, in May 2017 and January 2018.  The application for an exemption was on the basis that the new provisions contained in the Bill were of a technical nature and did not alter the principles or policies set out in the Radiological Protection Act 1991. The Bill dealt with “Mulcreevy type” issues with the Radiological Protection Act 1991 which the Attorney General's Office had identified and advised required early resolution. 

An exemption from pre-legislative scrutiny for the Inland Fisheries (Amendment) Bill was sought to address an issue in the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 concerning the power of IFI to prosecute in relation to offences under the Fisheries Acts. It was essential that the 2010 Act could be amended without delay to ensure that Inland Fisheries Ireland, as a statutory prosecutor, could continue to enforce the Inland Fisheries Acts which underpin the protection, management and conservation of Ireland’s inland fisheries and sea-angling resource. 

The exemption requests were granted in both cases.