Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said that Ireland has gone to great lengths to implement EU regulations in a “very comprehensive” way to ensure Government plans don’t end up in the courts, but that the State must now assess the “trade-offs” of this approach.
The remarks came following an update from Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers to a Cabinet committee on infrastructure.
Chambers reported that the accelerating infrastructure taskforce has identified instances where EU directives are being implemented in Irish law with added layers of requirements not contained in the original European rules.
The taskforce is examining different approaches to bringing EU directives into Irish legislation, with the aim of streamlining the process and potentially reducing the length of major projects by several years.
This practice – referred to as “gold-plating” – involves Ireland applying stricter conditions or broader interpretations than those which were actually set out at EU level.
Asked by Gript if he agreed with Chambers’ assessment, Donohoe said he did.
“I think Jack, Minister Chambers, has made a very important point,” he said.
“What he was very careful in saying is that it’s not the EU directive itself, which we’re involved in and democratically agreeing to. It is then how we implement it here at home. And he’s correct with regard to that.”
He said that this would not be “straightforward or easy to do”, but that it was “really important”.
“I got a briefing on it yesterday afternoon, or rather the cabinet subcommittee on infrastructure did, and I believe it’s really good work that is going to have a very positive effect.”
Asked why the Government had gone beyond what was required of them, Donohoe said this was largely to avoid projects ending up in the courts.
“I think there are a couple of different reasons why,” he said.
“But the one that I’m better understanding at the moment is that in our efforts to avoid policy matters or issues regarding the implementation of directives having to be settled within our courts or by regulators, we want to be as precise and as comprehensive as possible in the implementation and transposition of the directive.
“And that therefore leads to very comprehensive and complex implementations of directives to try to avoid an ambiguity or lack of precision that might have to be resolved elsewhere. And that is understandable, but we just have to consider the trade-offs involved in all of that.”
According to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the Government is currently examining how some of the extra requirements added to EU rules in Irish law might be scaled back. These additional provisions have imposed particularly stringent conditions on developers in areas such as environmental compliance.
“Every modern leader is saying we have stitched ourselves up over the years,” he said.
“An accumulation of regulatory frameworks that are just too straitjacketing of development. There has to be a better way.”
The Taoiseach noted that there is increasing dissatisfaction with planning decisions taking years to complete, particularly when legal challenges and judicial reviews by individuals or organisations halt progress.