(Cavan-Monaghan): As I had been saying before reporting progress, we are dealing with this Committee Stage in a piecemeal manner which does not make it easier to have a useful debate.
Subsection (2) says:
Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, an agreement under this section may—
(a) provide for the application of the proceeds of tolls, systems of accounting...
(b) provide for its duration and for its termination...
(c) provide for the giving of such security as may be specified therein.
On the last occasion we debated this the Minister and I differed on the question of whether or not the Bill imposed an obligation on the road authority to write into the type of agreement about which we are speaking a clause providing for its termination. I thought it did not; the Minister thought it did. We are now both agreed that it does not but that it merely enables the road authority to write into the agreement a clause providing for its termination. I maintain that the agreement should have such a clause written into it, that it should not be an optional matter for the road authority or for the Minister, that this House should exercise that much control over any such agreement, should specify that any such agreement must provide a clause for its termination when the other party, who is the private contractor, has been recompensed adequately for the money expended by him in constructing a road or bridge.
The Minister concedes that, as far as his present knowledge goes, such inquiries as have been received in his Department are for projects in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and the Naas by-pass. The Minister concedes also that each of those five projects would be a profitable enterprise. I go further and say that some of them are in the golden egg category and none of them could possibly show a loss. For that reason I am very strongly of the opinion that this House should retain control over such agreements to the extent that it will be written into this Bill that they must provide machinery for their termination. I am against giving blank cheques of this nature. That is the main point I make on subsection (2). It deals really with paragraph (b) of that subsection.
I should like the Minister to deal also with paragraph (a) which says that the agreement may:
Provide for the application of the proceeds of tolls, systems of accounting for tolls collected and the methods and times of payment of proceeds of tolls to the persons to whom they are to be paid under the terms of the agreement,
Perhaps the Minister would inform us what thought has been put into that and exactly what is involved in that paragraph. I should like to know if the Minister and his Department have considered what arrangements are likely to be made. We know that the Minister's Department make regulations fairly quickly and probably at present have them in draft form. I do not mean to be funny when I say that sometimes they make the regulations before a Bill is enacted. That would suggest to me that the Minister has considerable information at his disposal as to the type of regulation that would be made.
Paragraph (c) also provides for the giving by the person concerned of security for their observance of the contract. What type of security has the Minister in mind? Will it be security given by a private individual or will it be the more formal type of security such as an insurance company bond or a bank bond?