Batt O'Keeffe
Question:100 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the concerns, if any, he has at the cost of new regulations emanating from the EU on Irish businesses. [4166/96]
Vol. 462 No. 3
100 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the concerns, if any, he has at the cost of new regulations emanating from the EU on Irish businesses. [4166/96]
I am very conscious of the cost of new regulations on Irish businesses and I am aware that an increasing proportion of these regulations are emanating from the European Union.
The cost of compliance with new and, indeed, existing regulations is widely recognised. In 1994 the Task Force on Small Business considered the regulatory burden on business and recognised the burden arising from compliance costs particularly for small business. The European Commission, in a report presented to the Madrid European Council in December 1995, recognised that European enterprises face an increasingly complex, legal, fiscal and administrative environment. The 1995 annual report of the European Observatory for SMEs has estimated the total annual cost of administrative burdens on all enterprises in Europe to be in the order of 150 - 250 billion ECU (IR£122 — 204 billion). I share with the European Commission and other member states a strong concern at the extent of these costs and a desire to see these burdens reduced.