OPINION:The depths of our financial crisis have exposed the limits of our policy-making process, writes ELAINE BYRNE
MYOPIA IS the medical term for short-sightedness. This inability to clearly focus on distant objects has overwhelmingly characterised Irish political debate.
The extraordinary depths of our financial crisis have fundamentally exposed the limits, shortcomings and abject failure of our policy-making process. The Irish property bubble was inflated through property-based tax incentives such as reliefs on multi-storey car parks, hotels and student accommodation which amounted to €421 million in 2006. Obviously, such incentives were not based on a long-term macro-economic analysis on the unintended consequences of these short-term micro-interventions. Classic Irish myopia. So, why did this happen?
Besides elections, the public interact most directly with the government through regulation. For example, our driving licences, medical cards and child benefit are governed by regulatory measures. Regulations are the legislative cornerstone for good governance. They protect the public in health and safety, preserve the environment, secure our social wellbeing and advance the conditions for an innovative and competitive economy.
In the context of the forthcoming proposals of An Bord Snip, regulatory reform has a direct impact on public sector reform. A large proportion of a civil servant’s job description encompasses the drafting, implementation and monitoring of regulation. If a full review of our regulatory framework were to occur, this would have an impact on the public sector payroll bill. A more efficient regulatory framework would therein reduce the personnel needed to deliver regulatory frameworks.
The programme for government already contains a commitment to “ensure that our regulatory framework remains flexible, proportionate and up to date”.
We already have a good governance framework. If fully implemented earlier it may have pre-empted many of the Government’s policy mistakes. But most of us have never heard of this powerful governance instrument which has the potential to reignite trust in politics and pioneer direct public participation in the decision-making process.
Instead political and media comment is very hot and bothered about the imposition of the guillotine or deadline on legislation in advance of the Dáil rising for its summer holidays on Friday. This, they believe, has prevented serious scrutiny of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill and the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill among others.
This is a myopia masterpiece.
By the time draft legislation is debated in the Dáil the ship has long since sailed and the legislative menu already written.
That’s what a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) is for. This evidence-based policy-making tool allows for a systematic early consideration of the benefits, costs, enforcement and compliance issues of new regulatory proposals. Instead of a crisis-led approach to legislation where knee-jerk reactions occur and regulations are thrown together, the RIA forces policy-makers to openly and calmly assess and consider their long-term implications.
It opens up decision-making to interested stakeholders and the wider public rather than our traditional Civil Service-led policy approach. It is here that Opposition politicians can directly make an input before the items on the legislative menu have already been decided.
There are usually two windows where proposals can be introduced to a draft Bill. These two phases are known as the screening regulatory impact analysis and the regulatory impact analysis. During these two crucial phases civil servants must include a written justification for the inclusion or exclusion of proposals.
This has the potential to completely redefine the traditionally secretive relationship between senior civil servants and their Ministers. It also provides us a forum for our direct participation.
The introduction of inclusiveness, transparency and public scrutiny into the legislative process ensures that we put our best policy foot forward. Higher-quality regulation is a win-win situation. It instigates red tape on red tape, cutting down on wasteful bureaucracy.
The Canadian and British regulatory system (www.regulation.gc.ca and www.berr.gov.uk) are regarded as model international good practice.
The 2008 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report on the public service was critical of the Irish RIA system (www.betterregulation.ie). Key OECD recommendations include “improve focus on long-term policy needs”, greater use of RIAs in policy evaluation, and the centralisation of RIAs.
A senior Canadian regulatory official and I spent hours over the weekend attempting to find a schedule of RIAs and their deadlines for submission on the various departments’ websites. We met with little success.
In June, the Taoiseach’s department published Revised RIA Guidelines which has committed the Government to conduct RIAs on proposed EU directives/significant regulations “as early as possible” which signals a new importance being placed by the Government on RIAs. A welcome initiative but impotent if the media and the wider public are blindly unaware of its existence.