Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

If the people who drafted it were in the IAA, then it is wrong because, at the end of the day, there has to be separation between the regulated and the regulator. What would happen if we decided in the morning that we would take the approach of putting a couple of pilots onto the board of the IAA who are also flying for some company or other? What sort of regulation would we have then? That is what we are talking about here. We are talking about mixing the regulated with the regulator. That is fundamentally wrong.

The staff of the Attorney General's office, as my colleague said, are experts in the legality of drafting legislation. Who is the person in the Department of Transport who drafted this legislation and what expertise did he or she have? He or she could have listened to the IAA. If the IAA was holding the pen, however, we have a serious problem. This Bill should not progress until we find out exactly who is who and what is what in the context of the drafting.

The Acting Chairperson wants to push this forward and the Minister of State wants to push it forward. God knows, everybody wants to push it forward. It would be wrong of us to push forward flawed legislation, however. If there is a conflict of interest somewhere, then the Bill is deeply flawed. Please tell me, Acting Chairperson, that you would not bring in your own children to sit down and agree the rules of the House. That is just not the way it works.