Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I understand the Deputy's point but, by definition, an office that does not exist cannot do all the work we need in the timeframe we want it done. Therefore, we have done that. My Department and officials have been working on this since we made the decision in Cabinet at the end of 2011. The Deputy is right that this involved a huge volume of work, a huge volume of international analysis and we have also had professional advisers in, as we have explained.

The role of the regulator is to regulate in accordance with both the licence and the Act. It is a very substantial industry of €750 million turnover annually. It is not an inconsequential sum of money If one considers other regulators, they probably deal with less important volumes of money. It is important that this is dealt with in a very transparent and open way. It will be done in accordance with the legislation. I like the new reporting mechanism to the Oireachtas, which is something I picked up from the case made by Deputy Fleming on Second Stage. Even if we do not travel down the road we discussed of expanding the role of the regulator to cover a broader gambling area, there will be a significant volume of work for the regulator to do.