Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Bryan, Mr. Smith and Ms Farrell for coming before the committee. Competition and the Competition Authority have been mentioned several times. Mr. Kelly made a very relevant point when he said the opposition of the Competition Authority to a statutory code had also been cited in earlier meetings of the committee. That is the case, but it misses the point that at issue is unfair trading practices, not competition rules. That sums up what we are about.

As part of the proposed new legislation which we all welcome and for which I have been pushing for a long time, it is proposed to merge the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency. Reference was made to this issue at another hearing. The National Consumer Agency will tell us that the consolidation or cannibalisation of the groceries sector is not in the consumer's best interests because it leads to dominance and too few entities having too much control. Sometimes people cherry-pick which side they want to talk to. There may be an issue when these two bodies are merged to try to merge their ethics, but we will see how that goes.

We thank the delegation for coming and outlining its position. At this stage, most of us are well aware of the issues involved, with no disrespect to anyone who has fed material to us. It is important that we try to pick out the points that will give us a productive role in putting a new enforceable code in place that will work in harmony with EU law. The major danger is that if we do too much, without working in harmony with the European Union, we will lose our competitive advantage.