Mr. John Dunne:

I agree with pretty much everything Dr. Harnett said, except I would say I do not see why we must have an arbitrary deadline of June if we need to get this right. The consultation around the codes of practice was farcical in terms of the amount of stuff dumped in the system just before Christmas. People had been working on these matters for the past five years, so a lot of work had gone into this.

We were involved in one of the advisory groups that drafted one of the codes - I will not say which one. The group of technical experts - we were representing the customer end of it - was shocked at what came out as the code because it was not what went in as the advice. Even there, there has been a significant change. The people who were tasked, as experts, with drafting the code do not recognise what is there. There is no time to do anything about that because we are all working towards this deadline. While I see the need to introduce the legislation as soon as possible, I do not see the need for an arbitrary deadline.