Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I confirm to the Deputy that it is my intention to legislate in this area. We are working on the heads of the Bill for the reform of the 1932 Act. We had several very good discussions on the DTA Bill. Deputy O'Dowd made several points on the 1932 Act and regulation. I have taken those into consideration in this reform and in the Bill we are bringing forward. The heads are nearly prepared and within a few weeks I should be able to circulate the heads of the Bill to the Government. I am not sure I will be able to publish the Bill during the current session. It depends on the difficulties with drafting. As I said all along, it is my intention, and I gave the Deputy that commitment, that we will proceed as quickly as we can. Much work has been done on that Bill.

I do not want to say too much about the case the Deputy has referred to because of ongoing court cases in that regard, but it is a perfect illustration of the reason we need to change the 1932 Act. I do not disagree with the Deputy's contention in that regard. The powers in the Act are weak. For some time Dublin Bus argued the case that it felt it was doing nothing wrong and there was some legal doubt as to whether that was the case. Even if it is prosecuted successfully, the levels of fines and so on in the Act are ridiculous and from that point of view the Deputy and myself are ad idem. We may have differences in terms of the actual Bill but we are——

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