David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When we discussed this on Committee Stage, and there was lengthy discussion of this with the Minister's officials at briefings on this matter too, the concern that we had was that it could be perceived that providers were being asked to police access to services, so I welcome the fact that the wording here essentially says that the regulator must be satisfied on the basis of information available to them. I think that is sensible and logical and it answers for me the concerns I had.

In any of these issues, where we had concerns, because this is a unique situation that we are developing here in Ireland and there is no template that we can take which makes it more difficult, the review after three years will be really important. If things need to be re-examined and changed then we can do that. On this issue, I think the wording the Minister has agreed to satisfies the concerns that I had and I thank the Minister for that. We did have very lengthy discussion on it but I am happy to support what has been inserted by this amendment. It does go a long way to alleviate concerns I had in this area.

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