Mr. Ronan Gallagher:

The Senator has raised this point in other sessions. He is right that CAR, which is the economic regulator and the smaller of the two parties, has fewer than 20 staff, some 17 staff. Our view is that certainly on the consumer protection side it needs to increase its capacity. Part of the rationale for the merger into the bigger entity is that it will be a bigger regulatory body from an organisational perspective. The Deputy mentioned the cost issue and part of that relates to some commentators mixing up the cost of the restructuring and also the cost of that would involved in any event in investing across the board in consumer protection, legal, and aviation, safety and security capacities. The industry is growing and the regulator needs to grow with it. There is an element of some of the costs being assigned to that natural growth through this restructuring but they are not the same thing.