Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Let us be clear about one thing a Chathaoirligh. We have agreed with the Leader of the House that we are going to sit for as long as necessary to get this through. The Senator is going to have to listen to a debate. Three or four hours is not going to kill the Senator. We have to get this law right and we have to make it reasonable. No matter how passionately the Senator believes in her cause, whether it is passed tonight or tomorrow, it is all the same thing. It is going to be the law of the land and our job is to look at it carefully. The Minister said he wanted a constructive approach and I am being constructive.

My point is I do not believe it is sensible to start a process whereby people who conduct outside advertising must work out whether there is a crèche near an advertising hoarding. I ask the Minister to consider the following. If the advertising hoarding is there and the crèche comes to it, is it suddenly going to go off-limits because somebody opens a crèche in the basement of a house? That is a different situation. Let us be reasonable about this. Likewise, if a new school opens up, does that mean that advertising hoardings must be redesignated, signs outside pubs must be taken down and so on? I do not know. Maybe that does not apply there. This is excessive use of regulation and there is a kind of zealotry about it which is disturbing.