Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I do not want to rehash the argument as the Senator has made the case. With regard to timetables, I favour the retention of "may" rather than "shall", precisely for the reason given by the Senator about one-off events and so on. However, I was just having a conversation — for which I apologise to the Senator — about the licence. The argument being used is that if we say "shall", the provision becomes very inflexible from the point of view of the operator and perhaps the authority as well.

This is something I will consider further when the Bill goes to the other House. The Senator makes a good point with regard to having the information where people can see it so they can measure, in a sense, what is being delivered against what was licensed. I do not accept that it should be done in all cases with regard to the timetable, but I will certainly consider the issue again. It is important we have the maximum amount of transparency and openness.