Pádraic McCormack
Ceist:141 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the provisions of the European Communities Bill 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10401/07]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 21 March 2007
Ceisteanna (102)
Freagraí scríofa
The European Communities Bill 2006 seeks to address the implications of the Supreme Court judgements in the Browne and Kennedy cases for the way in which EC measures are transposed into domestic law. Since 1973, it has been the practice to use statutory instrument-making powers contained in a wide variety of Acts of the Oireachtas to give effect to EC measures. The Supreme Court, in the above-mentioned judgements, has held this practice to be invalid, unless the Act of the Oireachtas explicitly provides that it can be used to give effect to EC law.
The European Communities Bill 2006 seeks to:
1. validate the hundreds of pieces of secondary legislation that are now susceptible to challenge as a result of the Browne and Kennedy judgements. These measures were adopted in good faith by successive Governments since 1973 in order to give effect to EC law.
2. provide Ministers with a new power to create indictable offences by statutory instrument, where this is necessary to implement EC law. The Bill also provides for a standard 21 day scrutiny procedure for certain statutory instruments that create indictable offences. This gives the Oireachtas a new power to scrutinise such statutory instruments.
3. permit Ministers to use existing primary legislation to create new regulations to implement EC measures, provided that the existing legislation relates to those areas covered by the EC measure.
The Bill will also enable EC measures to be transposed speedily and effectively via secondary legislation. This Bill is required if we are to give proper effect to our European obligations. We need to be in a position, as we have done since 1973, to use secondary legislation in order to implement EC law.