Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

The Minister is amusing us. He has made a speech as if someone had argued against regulation. None of us is arguing against that. He has outlined the benefits of regulation, for which I thank him, but we are aware of them and do not need to have them rehearsed. That is not the argument or the point at issue.

The industry accepts that it must pay for regulation but I have heard from many different sectors within the industry that it is daft to have two regulators when we only need one. The integration of technologies requires us to have one regulator, and that will happen eventually. The current Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, may not be there to oversee it but somebody after him will argue in future that we should have done this years ago and will do it then. The process will be more efficient as a consequence.

Now that the Minister is persisting with this particular misguided view, he must ensure the process is transparent. It is one thing to have plans put up on the web - we have all seen plans and grandiose strategies - but this is about budgets, estimates, where the money will go, where it will come from and who will be behind it.

The Minister mentioned staffing that will need to be sanctioned. We all know what has happened because of the embargo in the local authorities and HSE. In these cases, the embargo is avoided by taking on temporary staff and employing consultants. I have not had a chance to check this in the Bill but I would like a guarantee from the Minister that the same sort of activity will not happen in setting up this board.

It seems the Minister is setting up a regulator and indicating it will not cost a cent more than the BCI, yet it will have many extra duties and responsibilities. Such an objective means the Minister is living in fairyland. If there is to be no extra staffing, will the controls apply that clearly did not apply to local authorities taking on temporary staff?

I support Deputy Coveney's point with regard to paying back levies which are not spent. It would be grossly unfair on broadcasters not to accept that amendment. The Minister is saying he will keep the money even though it has not been spent. The broadcasters may not have it back although they may need it desperately, as the law will state that the Government can decide to hold on to it. That is grossly unfair.

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