Better Regulation in Europe: Ireland 2010
This report maps and analyses the core issues which together make up effective regulatory management for the Ireland, laying down a framework of what should be driving regulatory policy and reform in the future. Issues examined include: strategy and policies for improving regulatory management; institutional capacities for effective regulation and the broader policy making context; transparency and processes for effective public consultation and communication; processes for the development of new regulations, including impact assessment and for the management of the regulatory stock, including administrative burdens; compliance rates, enforcement policy and appeal processes; and the multilevel dimension: interface between different levels of government and interface between national processes and those of the EU. This book is part of a project examining better regulation, being carried out in partnership with the European Commission.
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Compliance, enforcement, appeals
Whilst adoption and communication of a law sets the framework for achieving a policy objective, effective implementation, compliance and enforcement are essential for actually meeting the objective. An ex ante assessment of compliance and enforcement prospects is increasingly a part of the regulatory process in OECD countries. Within the EU's institutional context these processes include the correct transposition of EU rules into national legislation (this aspect will be considered in Chapter 7). The issue of proportionality in enforcement, linked to risk assessment, is attracting growing attention. The aim is to ensure that resources for enforcement should be proportionately higher for those activities, actions or entities where the risks of regulatory failure are more damaging to society and the economy (and conversely, proportionately lower in situations assessed as lower risk). Rule-makers must apply and enforce regulations systematically and fairly, and regulated citizens and businesses need access to administrative and judicial review procedures for raising issues related to the rules that bind them, as well as timely decisions on their appeals. Tools that may be deployed include administrative procedures acts, the use of independent and standardised appeals processes,1 and the adoption of rules to promote responsiveness, such as “silence is consent”.2 Access to review procedures ensures that rule-makers are held accountable. Review by the judiciary of administrative decisions can also be an important instrument of quality control. For example, scrutiny by the judiciary may capture whether subordinate rules are consistent with the primary laws, and may help to assess whether rules are proportional to their objective.
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