Ireland To Reform Regulatory Environment For Business

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

22 January 2004

The publication on Tuesday of a white paper putting forward proposals for the removal of unnecessary regulatory red tape for Irish businesses has been welcomed by employers groups.

According to the paper, entitled "Regulating Better", in future, new legislation will be screened for its regulatory impact, in order to reduce the compliance burden on businesses in the Republic.

Speaking following the release of the report, Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern explained that a growing realisation that excessive red tape and bureaucracy is holding back economic competitiveness and social progress led the government to decide to restructure regulatory laws.

Under the new proposals, regulators may be permitted to impose large fines in order to ensure compliance, rather than resorting to prosecutions.

Director of enterprise with the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), Brendan Butler welcomed the white paper, but drew attention to the burden currently being faced by the business community, observing that:

"According to the government white paper, approximately 15% of this [EUR4 billion] burden was avoidable. Unnecessary regulation costs Irish business approximately EUR600 million per annum."

President of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, (CCI), Mark Staunton was more positive meanwhile, announcing that:

"Chambers are relieved to see that the Government is finally willing to cut-down on excessive red tape, which is choking our enterprise sector. The cost of compliance falls heavily on all business, but is felt more acutely by small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have the staff or resources to cope. Not alone this, but many new business ideas don’t even get off the ground as entrepreneurs balk at the amount of red tape they would have to wade through.”

He continued:

“Chambers recognise that in some cases there is a need for regulation, but in many cases it is implemented without any forethought as to what its consequences may be. In this context we particularly welcome the Government’s intention to vigorously and consistently apply Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) by which Government bodies will assess and quantify the likely impacts of major new regulations to determine whether or not they should be introduced."

However, the CCI president concluded by warning that:

"We will be keeping a close eye on the roll-out and implementation of the reform programme."

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