Ms Karen O'Leary:

I can explain it from the other side. How does a cartel usually come to the attention of the commission and other competition authorities? It is normally in one of two ways. The first is through an immunity application. We have an immunity programme with the Director of Public Prosecutions and we have a special hotline for immunity. That happens when an industry player decides it no longer wants to be part of a cartel. It phones us and asks to be first in the queue for immunity. In return it must tell us everything it knows about the cartel. This is known as a leniency application in other jurisdictions, and across Europe that is very often how agencies hear and find out about cartels. By their nature they are secret and hidden. A whistleblower is needed, or a cartel member who says "This is not working any more," or who fears someone will find out about it and so wants to be first in. The other way we find out about cartels is through bid rigging - for example, in procurement. This happens when several market players come together for a public or private sector procurement and agree on prices so that one wins this time and another the next time, or one gives the other the work afterwards. That kind of agreement is very serious and is a criminal breach of competition law in Ireland.

The DPP has agreed to prosecute a bid-rigging case we sent to her. It will come before the courts in the first quarter of 2017. We have another active investigation into bid rigging which came to our attention through procurement officials. In one case a disgruntled former employee made a phone call and blew the whistle. Cartels are secret by nature and very often we have to find out about them from an insider. That distinguishes them from other anti-competitive behaviour that is not criminal in our jurisdiction or in others, such as this case, which was made known through public pronouncements. Were those announcements followed by action? That is the differentiating factor: is it secret and private - does it need a whistleblower - or is it in the public domain?