David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of colleagues, I would like to say the same. We are quite impressed with the work and effort that has gone into this. We are updating legislation which is quite old. Some of it was enacted before television, so it goes back a while. Much work is involved and it is highly technical. I take the point that we all need advice and expertise in this very technical and very evolving area.

If anyone, listening here, in television land or in Internet land, has something to say on this matter, this is their opportunity to send submissions to us because we want to try to do the best we can with the legislation as we proceed together to bring about the best possible outcome for everybody.

We have done this with nine pieces of legislation. This pre-legislative scrutiny gives legislators the opportunity to have an input into the legislation and to question and engage with experts and members of the public on it. It is an extremely valuable way to proceed. In the past legislation was produced by Departments and it was very hard to make any changes to it. We now have an opportunity to suggest changes. We cannot promise that they will be made but we are certainly listening.