Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Section 7 states, inter alia:

Where the Minister, following an application under the relevant statutory provisions—(a) grants a licence,
(b) gives an approval,
(c) makes a grant or loan, or
(d) makes an entry in a register,he or she may grant, give or make it, as appropriate, with or without conditions.

I do not see the "without conditions" element, so I think it will be with conditions. There are more and more conditions with these things, and my amendment seeks to insert, after the phrase "with or without conditions", that any conditions "shall be proportionate to achieving the Act’s objectives and shall not impose additional costs on the sector that are not justified". All the time the conditions just get more onerous in everything being done. We will stop any activity in the country. As Deputy Boyd Barrett pointed out, those who have enough wealth can obviously ignore the conditions, because they can take the rap. It is always the poor guy who gets caught with these multiple conditions not because the State wants to act unfairly, but because the other person can take the chance.

When my constituents tell me they are going to take someone to court, I say that it is fine for a millionaire to put down €30,000 on a horse at the Galway races, but the ordinary person cannot take that punt. The people who cannot fight these disproportionate conditions are those at the smaller end who are struggling. There should be some restriction on the Minister to make sure the conditions are proportionate.