Consultation on the proposed approach to enforcement of chemicals legislation including REACH, GHS, Import/Export of chemicals and Seveso

Introduction

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is commencing a public consultation, on 19 October 2007, on a draft Scheme of a Chemicals Regulation and Enforcement Bill. The purpose of the draft Scheme of a Bill is to provide for the implementation and enforcement of certain EU Regulations and Directives. These include the REACH Regulation, the proposed Regulation on the Global Harmonisation of classification, packaging and labelling of chemicals, known as GHS, the proposed Regulation on the Import and Export of Dangerous Chemicals, and the Seveso Directive on control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances.

This is a framework Bill which will enable both the enforcement of EU Regulations which are directly applicable and the making of regulations to give effect to EU measures in this area which are in the form of Directives.

By providing for a number of different pieces of chemicals-related legislation, the Bill should provide clarity for industry and should significantly further the Better Regulation agenda.

Relevant Documents:

1. Draft Scheme of a Chemicals Regulation and Enforcement Bill [pdf, 717kb]
2. Regulatory Impact Analysis [pdf, 452kb]

Responses:

Two stakeholder responses were received during the consultation period:

• IBEC [word, 27kb]
• ICT Ireland [word, 294kb]