The Government has promised to introduce "lighter" forms of regulation under a strategy aimed at cutting red tape - estimated to cost Irish business up to €600 million a year.

The White Paper On Better Regulation, which was published yesterday, recommends the use of alternative means of enforcing legislation rather than pursuing offenders through the courts.

It suggests greater use of measures such as the plastic bag tax, which helped to "modify behaviour" without the appointment of litter wardens or inspectors, or the imposition of new administrative charges.

The White Paper also commits the Government to assessing possibilities for consolidating or "rationalising" existing regulators, and says new sectoral regulators would be created only if the case for them "can be clearly demonstrated".

Either excise law, or gaming and lotteries legislation, is expected to be assessed under a pilot review scheme this year, with the aim of rolling out a new Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) regime by January 2005.

Under the process, relevant Departments or offices will assess and quantify the likely impact of new regulations whose compliance burden is above a certain threshold - expected to be in the order of €25 million.

A systematic review of existing regulation is also to take place with an emphasis on updating pre-1922 law.

In addition, a Better Regulation Group will be established within the Department of the Taoiseach this year to monitor implementation of the action plan and recommend improvements.

Publishing the document yesterday, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said: "We need to tackle the volume of regulation. We must scrutinise every proposal for a new law or statutory instrument.

"Equally we must systematically examine what is already in place to see if it is still relevant and still achieving the objective that gave rise to it."

Referring to health and safety and road safety as regulatory areas that might benefit from review, the Taoiseach said it was "not effective" if the only way a regulator could deal with breaches was by criminal prosecution.

He said there was potential for greater use of tax incentives to correct problems in certain sectors but it would be "totally counter-productive" if these were transformed into revenue-raising mechanisms.

The White Paper cited a European Commission finding that the burden of red tape on business was between 4 per cent and 6 per cent of GNP, and that 15 per cent of this burden was avoidable.

It said, based on such estimates, unnecessary regulation cost Irish business at least €582 million last year.

The Government action plan follows a 2001 OECD review of Ireland's regulatory environment which concluded it was one of the less regulated states in the OECD with "policy biases of producer over consumer interests" in several areas.

Welcoming the White Paper, the employers' group IBEC said a recent survey of members indicated that the cost of regulation compliance was their third biggest concern after insurance and energy.

Mr Brendan Butler, director of enterprise at IBEC, said its view was that new regulations should only be implemented if "a substantial benefit over cost" was identified.

He urged the Government to "very quickly" roll out the RIA process to all departments, adding that the findings of each analysis should be published.

IBEC also called for a series of changes to existing regulations including environmental and employment laws as well as the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003, which introduces new compliance requirements on business.

The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland also welcomed the White Paper, saying regulation was implemented in many cases "without any forethought as to what its consequences may be".

Main points:

Under its action plan on regulatory reform (further details at www.betterregulation.ie), the Government promises to:

Create a high-level Better Regulation Group to carry out an audit of Ireland's regulatory framework.

• Consolidate or streamline regulatory bodies where desirable.

• Subject all major regulations to Regulatory Impact Analysis, a new means of assessing their effectiveness.

• Conduct systematic reviews of regulation, including a Statute Law Revision to update pre-1922 legislation.

• Regulate as lightly as possible, given the circumstances, and use more alternatives.

• Introduce new legislation that will ensure fines imposed by regulations are kept up to date through indexation.

• Develop better mechanisms for appealing regulatory decisions.

• Publish explanatory guides alongside new regulations to ensure they are better understood.

• Institute broader consultation with consumers and other groups over new regulations.

• Streamline administrative processes, using new technology where possible, to reduce form-filling and make services faster and more accessible.