I move amendment No. 1:
In page 6, to delete lines 3 to 12 inclusive, and substitute the following:—
"( ) (1) Regulations may be made by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance providing for
(a) the assignment to the Board of such additional functions as the Minister may consider necessary in relation to milk or milk products,
(b) making such provision as the Minister considers desirable or necessary in relation to matters ancillary to or arising out of the assignment of functions to the Board under this Act or the performance by the Board of those functions.
(2) Regulations made under subsection 1 of this section may be revoked or amended by regulations.
(3) Where regulations are proposed to be made for the purposes of this section, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.
On the Committee Stage, there was a fairly lengthy debate on Section 5 which specifies the functions which An Bord Bainne will have and on Section 6, which is the subject of this amendment, particularly with regard to the assignment by Ministerial regulation of additional functions to the Board. The section which assigns the functions to the Board, Section 5, is a fairly lengthy section and one cannot imagine that there are many other functions that could be assigned to the Board. Consequently, it must be taken that the functions the Board may acquire authority to discharge will be minor functions or will be major functions which it is not intended at this stage should be vested in the Board. If it should be a major function which it is not intended to vest in the Board at this stage, it is not good enough in my opinion to assign such major function to An Bord Bainne merely by way of ministerial regulation.
The House will note that it is not alone the Minister for Agriculture who is involved; the Minister for Finance is also involved under this section. Any regulations made under the section can be made only with the consent of the Minister for Finance. We must take it, therefore, that since the consent of the Minister for Finance is a prerequisite to the making of regulations, public moneys will be involved. If that is so, then it should be a minimum requirement that both Houses, and particularly the Dáil, should have some say in relation to the involvement of public moneys in the additional functions of the Board.
I do not think any difficulty would ever arise if this amendment were accepted. On the contrary, it has a certain value from the point of view of parliamentary democracy. When I mention parliamentary democracy, I mean that it is only right and proper that the representatives of the people should retain control, particularly control in matters in which finance is involved. I do not seek to hamper the Minister or An Bord Bainne in the discharge of their functions. I merely seek to ensure that any new functions given to the Board will be given only after full parliamentary discussion.
The amendment suggests nothing new or revolutionary. Under the Social Welfare Act, the schedule of specified employments may be amended by order and that order must first be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas. The same situation obtains in relation to changes in the contributions. That is a convenient method of amending legislation. It has much to commend it as against regulation. Regulations are tabled almost, one might say, clandestinely. They are seldom seen and rarely discussed by members of either House.
Under the State Guarantees Act, 1954, a number of public bodies— Fuel Importers (Éire) Limited, Grain Importers (Éire) Limited, Irish Steel Holdings Limited, the Great Northern Railway Board, which, I take it, is now defunct, and the Irish Potato Marketing Committee Limited—are entitled to have their loans guaranteed by the State and it is provided that the order amending the Schedule must be made by the Government. That is collective responsibility at its best. Despite the fact that the order is made by the Government, with all the authority and responsibility of governmental decision behind it, it does not take effect until a draft of it has been approved by both House. It seems to me to be eminently reasonable, sensible and practicable to suggest that in relation to an industry so important to the economy of the country as a whole, any new functions to be given to the Board should be the subject of a type of order such as I suggest in this amendment.
I find it disheartening, to say the least of it, to find Senators like Senator Ryan saying, as he did on Committee Stage, that this kind of legislation by regulation is inevitable. I should have thought that Senator Ryan would have been the first to understand the importance of maintaining the supremacy of Parliament as established under the Constitution. I can well understand that there are some people who may not have all the respect for parliamentary institutions one would wish. I would hope, however, that the younger people on the other side of this House would not tread the path their political forbears trod.