We’ll continue to be “good Europeans”!

Recently Senator Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fáil) called for greater scrutiny of EU directives and regulations. He said that last year there were 53 acts of the Oireachtas and 590 statutory instruments, while there were 52 EU directives and 1,270 regulations proposed. “In reality, we only debated the 53 acts of the Oireachtas.”

Introducing a private member’s bill, the EU Scrutiny and Transparency in Government Bill (2013), MacSharry said the democratic deficit often suggested in respect of Europe was a reality.

But the Tánaiste, Éamon Gilmore, let the cat out of the bag, saying there was little point in lengthy debate about the substance of EU legislative measures at the time of their being transposed into Irish law, often by statutory instrument. Vigorously tugging his forelock, he explained that at that stage the policy issues were settled, and Ireland’s obligation was to apply the law agreed at the EU level.

Of course what both MacSharry and Gilmore omitted to mention is that a more potent method of scrutiny involves reviewing the legislation before agreement in Brussels, as is done, for example, in Denmark. We might then mandate our representatives. But then we wouldn’t do that, would we?

 

Government plans to publish ESM bill, EU-IMF bill and household charges bill before the end of the year

The Government plans to publish a number of bills during the current Dáil session, including a number arising from the EU-IMF programme.

The Department of Finance will publish five bills in the coming months. The Fiscal Responsibility Bill will provide a statutory basis for a range of fiscal policy and expenditure management reform, while another bill will enable Ireland to ratify the treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism. The European Financial Stability Facility (Amendment) Bill and Euro Area Loan Facility (Amendment) Bill will enable Ireland to ratify agreed amendments to the EFSF framework agreement and the Greek loan facility agreement, and will be introduced as soon as this week.

Among the other important bills to be published are two from the Department of the Environment. The Local Government (Charges) Bill will impose an annual household charge on owners of residential properties, while the Water Services (Amendment) Bill will establish a system for inspecting and monitoring the performance of septic tanks and other onsite waste-water treatment systems.