Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2023-02-14
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

The problem is that section 3 does not say that there are certain areas in which the Minister will just make regulations. Section 3 refers to regulations on any matter referred to in this Act. As the Minister of State rightly pointed out, there are different requirements and I will come to them in one of my later amendments. There are specific and different requirements on certain aspects of the regulations around cybersecurity. They are different and there are different processes around the regulations that are set out but all of that is undercut by section 3, which provides for regulations on anything. The Minister of State has stated that I cannot say that maybe the Minister should have to consult with the commission on everything but perhaps it is a bit loose to have in the Bill a section providing that the Minister can regulate on anything without consultation. It seems to contradict the policy intent in certain other sections of the Bill, which sets out specific plans on them. It creates an ambiguity that I do not think is helpful whereby the Minister may choose to take the route with many regulations attached and with a process attached that is set out in one of the later sections, or he or she could just use section 3 and address any issue at all without any of that process or consultation. It seems, perhaps inadvertently, to be a strikingly widely worded section. It does not say, for example, regulations on any other matter mentioned in this Act which is not subject to sections X, Y or Z. It seems very loosely phrased and I am concerned in that respect.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2023-02-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-02-14