(1) The entrustment act shall endure until the relevant date whereupon it shall cease to be in force.

(2) The Minister may, after consultation with the European Commission and the Minister for Finance and having regard, if such be the case, of the need to continue the Risk Equalisation Scheme for the purposes of assisting in the achievement of the principal objective and of the period for which the Scheme needs to so continue, make an order specifying a date for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of 'relevant date'.

(3) An order made under subsection (2) shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which the House sits after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(4) In this section -