I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The National Standards Authority of Ireland is responsible for establishing standards for a wide range of products and processes and for the certification of these standards. This work is undertaken in direct co-operation with Irish industry together with international regulatory authorities under the auspices of the European Commission and other standards agencies which have a recognised world-wide remit.
In the interests of individual consumers and to facilitate growth in trade and commerce, the mutual recognition and achievement of established standards is an absolute essential in the contemporary world. The main purpose of bringing this Bill before the House is to establish the NSAI as an independent and autonomous agency and in so doing to underpin and enhance its role in the development and certification of a wide range of standards.
The need to establish this agency on a legally independent basis results from a requirement of the European Commission and the necessity for the NSAI to have an administrative structure which is seen to be independent of all other client agencies. The current administrative and operational status of the NSAI, as a committee within the ambit of Forfás, is not in line with these requirements and accordingly this legislation will give effect to the change in its status which my Department has been independently advised as being legally necessary.
The principal purpose of standardisation is to facilitate trade and to establish common criteria for particular products or processes. Standardisation seeks to achieve: protection of consumer interests by ensuring adequate and consistent quality of goods and services; economy of effort, materials, energy consumption in the production of goods or the provision of services; enhancement of public safety, health and protection of the environment; and the elimination of technical barriers to trade.
The agreement of all interested parties is essential if the benefits of standardisation are to be achieved. The main advantages which agreed standards confer are: the limitation of unnecessary variation in design and manufacturing procedures, giving more stability to production and marketing for the manufacturer and simplifying procurement for the purchaser; the interchangeability of component parts giving access to wider markets for the manufacturer and a choice of suppliers to the purchaser; improved communications and information exchange between the manufacturer and the purchaser by reference to standards documents containing agreed requirements for design and performance; and increased confidence that goods ordered will comply with the required criteria and that quality and reliability can be assured.
The degree to which any product or process functions satisfactorily depends on the adequacy of the relevant standard specifications and the assurance of conformity to those standards. This clearly is an increasingly important task and one which has been well delivered to date in this country by the NSAI.
The NSAI currently operates a semiautonomous committee of Forfás and was established under section 10 of the Industrial Development Act, 1993. Its functions are the promulgation and formulation of standards on behalf of the Minister and the certification of products and processes that comply with these standards. The NSAI was originally set up under section 17 of the Industrial Research and Standards Act, 1961 to assist and advise the board of the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards (IIRS) in relation to standards. In this context the IIRS was required: to formulate for the Minister in accordance with his directions specifications for such commodities, processes and practices as the Minister may from time to time request; with the consent of the Minister, to declare any specification so formulated to be a standard specification for the commodity, process or practice to which it relates; to make recommendations to the Minister as to the provision and use of standard marks for commodities, processes and practices which conform to standard specifications, and to test and analyse commodities, intended for sale or for use by the public, for the purpose of ensuring conformity with standard specifications and encouraging the standardisation of commodities, processes and practices, or generally, with the object of ascertaining for the public benefit, the characteristics of such commodities.
The 1961 Act provided for the development of a body of standards by reference to existing national and international norms, provided for standards related to public health and safety and contained powers to make these standards mandatory. It also established an Irish Standard Mark scheme under which Irish manufacturers can, under licence from NSAI, demonstrate that their product meets the performance and safety requirements of a particular standard relative to that product.
In discharging its statutory functions, there are two broad categories of service which NSAI provides — standards development and product and process certification. These services have now become central in their significance and an important aspect in enhancing the competitiveness of our industry and services sectors.
The standards development service provides Irish industry with the opportunity of making an input to national, European and international standards. It does this by means of its standards membership scheme and its national consultative committees. The standards membership scheme provides Irish industry with up-to-date information on developments in relation to standards and technical regulations at national, European and international level.
Frequent meetings are held throughout the country at which the standards and technical regulations are explained and individual manufacturers are invited to demonstrate the effects of standards and regulations on their businesses.
In addition NSAI has established 14 consultative committees, each one dedicated to a particular business sector, in which requirements for individual standards or the Irish position in relation to European or international standards is determined.
The certification service operated by NSAI has had a dramatic impact in Ireland over the past five years. The fact that over 1,000 Irish companies are now registered to the ISO 9000 series of standards for quality management systems indicates a clear recognition of the importance of developing and improving management systems. By end 1997 there will be over 2,000 Irish companies registered by NSAI. Each company registered remains subject to a continuing programme of monitoring inspections for as long as their registration is valid.
Product and process certification is also an important service provided by NSAI. With increasing numbers of products being submitted for certification as complying with specified requirements in the EU directives, demand for this service is expected to continue to grow.
A range of additional EU directives, which seek to reduce the barriers to international trade and give reality to the concept of a common market, are currently under discussion or in the process of being implemented. Compliance with these requirements will involve continuing growth in the service of product certification provided by the NSAI.
The elimination of technical barriers to trade was recognised by the EU as a priority task in the programme for the completion of the Single Market. Since the adoption by the Council of a new approach to technical harmonisation and standardisation in 1985, the harmonisation of European industrial standards addressed in EU techinical legislation has become an essential instrument in achieving this objective.
In 1985 the European Commission recognised that a major problem was being encountered in the development of regulations and directives designed to increase safety and remove barriers to trade across the entire Community. The difficulty specifically related to the inclusion of technical specifications in the body of the regulations and directives. It was decided that they should specify only the essential requirement, quality, performance and safety, and devolve responsibility for drafting the relevant standards to the European standardisation bodies, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. This freed up the process and several new approach directives have since been adopted covering a diverse range of products such as toys, machinery and medical devices. The European standards bodies are given mandates to provide manufacturers of the products concerned with a set of technical specifications recognised in the directives as giving a presumption of conformity to the essential requirements.
In a separate initiative, the Commission has given these harmonised European standards a prominent role in opening up public procurement markets. Directives on public supplies and works, telecommunications, transport, energy and water supply require purchasing entities to refer to national standards, transposing European standards, with a view to ensuring that manufacturers in all member states have an even chance to obtain these public procurement contracts.
In more recent times the EU is negotiating mutual recognition agreements on standards with third countries US-Canada, New Zealand-Australia and Japan to name a few.