Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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221. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Denmark's estimate that pending EU regulations could impose €124.2billion in annual compliance costs EU-wide, to set out the Department's assessment of the projected annual regulatory compliance costs for Irish SMEs from files currently in the EU pipeline in 2025 to 2027; the methodology used; and the timeframe to publish sectoral regulatory costings and a national red tape reduction target. [49494/25]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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There is a particular focus on simplification and burden reduction at EU level with a view to improving EU competitiveness and ensuring there aren’t disproportionate burdens on business, particularly SMEs. The European Commission’s current work programme places a strong focus on simplification and proposes a series of so-called “omnibus proposals” which are intended to reduce unnecessary burdens on business arising from existing legislation. In addition, there is a focus on ensuring that future legislation is fit for purpose and does not result in disproportionate burdens on business.

The Commission conducts impact assessments on their published legislative proposals, which include expected compliance costs on businesses within scope. However, these assessments are specific to the individual proposals and cumulative costs would be difficult to assess as different businesses will be impacted to different extents.

At domestic level, my Department has led on the development of an Action Plan for Competitiveness and Productivity, which was published earlier this month. A key focus is improving Ireland’s regulatory environment under the theme “Regulating for Growth and Controlling Costs” and measures include:

- the introduction of a ‘Red Tape Challenge’ across Government to significantly reduce regulation for SMEs - reflecting the European Commission’s commitment to simplifying and reducing administrative burden for SMEs by 2029. This would include a review by each Government Department to identify regulations to be removed or reduced without impacting on policy objectives and a public consultation to identify areas of high burden or where burden reduction could be launched;

- all Government Departments to apply the SME Test to all measures, in particular to policy initiatives where it is proposed to increase costs on small business.

The Action Plan reflets a whole-of-Government approach to enhancing domestic competitiveness and sets out clear, actionable recommendations with timelines and Departmental ownership to ensure accountability.