Joe Conway (Independent)

Even though it is over 50 years old, I am sure the Minister of State is well aware of legislation that was enacted in 1972 called the Restrictive Practices Act. I draw particular attention to the Third Schedule, which reads:

Any measures, rules, agreements or acts, whether put into effect (or intended to be put into effect) by a person alone, in combination or agreement (express or implied) with others or through a merger, trust, cartel, monopoly or other means or device whatsoever, which—

[...] (d) unjustly enhance prices of goods or charges for services or promote unfairly at the expense of the public the advantage of suppliers or distributors of goods or of persons providing services.

I thank the Minister of State but, unfortunately, just restating the Government stance is not addressing the issue. The issue is that, as taxpayers and as a country, we are getting shockingly bad value from BAM and it is unlikely to change. The fact of the matter is that no latitude has been given to management and they have to suck it up. That is terrible for the Minister of State, for me and for the people who are paying the taxes.