Joe O'Toole (Independent)

If a provider tenders or pitches for this work, reads the legislation and goes to the regulator to say this is what he or she intends to do, the regulator can state that is not the way things are done here and that this is the service which has always been provided. The person pitching for the work will be able to say this is what the legislation states and means and that this is what he or she proposes to do. In five years time a different person might hold the position of regulator and would simply be arguing with the written word. It is like going to court. A person could argue the regulator was demanding that he or she do something which was not required by the legislation. It would be game, set and match. Somebody could go to court on that point and it would not matter what nice things had been done or what nice arrangements had been in place previously. We are governed by the word of the law. How many times have we read in court judgments that the law is what it is? It is not its spirit or anything else. This provision is open to abuse. I fully accept that it is not what the Minister intends, but I hope he accepts my reading of it.