Mr. Kieran Grace:

There are powers within the Competition Act 2002 and the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014, which sets out the powers of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC. One of the issues that must be borne in mind is that, depending on how the final text is worded, we may have to revisit the wording within the current legislation to make sure that we are meeting the requirements. The CCPC has the power to do that already. Many of the issues in this proposal are already covered by Irish legislation.

For the information of the committee, one of the desiderata of the EU Commission in bringing forward the proposal is to try to stabilise and provide certainty to many of the competition authorities in some member states where there may be less overt statutory certainty regarding independence. Some states which have recently acceded to the EU may have a different legal structure regarding their competition authorities compared to older member states. For example, the independence of the CCPC is enshrined in Irish legislation. In some member states independence is not enshrined, and the Commission is trying to ensure that those countries act to enshrine it. There is something for everybody in the audience, if I may use Gay Byrne's phrase. Every side will be able to take something from this proposal that is missing from their current armoury. We have legislation available in some areas, while in other areas we will have to legislate. The legislation we bring in, whether via statutory instruments or primary legislation, will fill those gaps. Alternatively we can revisit the wording we have in existing legislation to make sure it is totally and utterly consistent.