Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State sincerely for that. There are 6,000 people with some form of criminal conviction. Suppose the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine said he did not want certain people in agriculture or the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation said he did not want certain people in industry. Are we going to turn people into convicts? Are we going to give them all back to the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter? It is double jeopardy to convict somebody of one offence and say he or she cannot run a taxi either. If every Minister said there were too many people convicted of criminal offences in an industry, it would result in a huge change to criminal justice in this country. People who have served their time and paid their fines have rights as well. I am not so sure where the number comes from but if every Minister carried on like that, we would have a permanent criminal underclass. That is a danger of some of the reporting of what goes on in this sector.

I thank the Minister of State for initiating the Bill in this House. I mention the review group which, despite the Minister of State being the chair and Pat Byrne being the deputy chair, was heavily bureaucratic and heavily representative of the incumbents. In this area of economics, the incumbents will always oppose new entrants. Aer Lingus did so for years and CIE does it to independent bus companies. It is well known. I fear the emphasis is not enough on the consumer and too much on protecting the interests of the incumbents.