Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister's decision to hold a seminar to hear the views of all interested parties. Given that the legal advisory group has already produced a draft Bill for the Minister, I dearly hope that the seminar was not an exercise in aesthetics. I expect the Minister to give serious considerations to the issues raised there and that he will be open to the possibility of changing his mind on some of the more questionable aspects of his policy.

Fine Gael is completely and absolutely opposed to a statutory press council which will comprise Government appointees. This is a Government which cannot even control the economy, yet it wants to take control of the press. The Government's proposal for press regulation looks more like something to be expected from a thriving dictatorship.