Ms Isolde Goggin:

We have the power to take a summary prosecution, which is a lower-level prosecution, in the District Court. We have powers to carry out an investigation and refer a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for her to bring a criminal prosecution on indictment in the Central Criminal Court. We also have powers to apply to the High Court for declaratory and injunctive relief. If we find a practice that we feel is bad in competition terms but does not meet the criminal threshold, we would apply to the High Court. It can state that the conduct is wrong and order that the respondents must stop doing it. It can also require them to carry out certain actions to ensure that they do not do that anymore. We can apply to the High Court and undertakings can be given by those involved in the company, etc., to behave or not to behave in a certain way in future. The issue is that it changes the behaviour but there is no penalty. As a general rule, we do not have civil fines in Ireland. Therefore, any penalty has to be imposed on the basis of a criminal prosecution. This brings us into the area of the criminal burden of proof, which is beyond reasonable doubt. The burden of proof in a civil case is the balance of probabilities which is a lower burden of proof. However, there is no penalty. In specific regulated sectors, such as the financial services where there is an administrative fines regime and the Central Bank can carry out its own investigations and impose-----