David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am on my phone because the machine did not work for some reason this morning. Again, I welcome the officials to the committee. Will they speak to the matter of gun jumping or its prevalence? There are a number of heads dealing with leniency and immunity so could those be fleshed out a bit? It appears that if somebody co-operates and discloses information about their comrades in any alleged offence, they may be treated in a more lenient way. There may be implications in doing that and they may be endangering parties, depending on the alleged offence. Would protection be furthered to somebody in a position where he or she is involved with serious criminal organisations?

The Bill speaks about sealing business and books for the duration of an investigation. Is there a limit to how long a business can be sealed? We might envisage a case where a business could be closed for a considerable period, leading to a loss of income and turnover, as well as damage to reputation. Will the witnesses speak to that? If the process takes an inordinate period in the courts, a party may feel that a business has been shut after doing nothing wrong and may want to appeal to a court. The business may have no way of opening until somebody decides the investigation is over. One can see how that might be an issue.

I notice as well there are also unannounced inspections allowed in people's comes. CRH has been mentioned and it has been noted that documents, books and information can be stored in people's homes. Will the witnesses speak to that? There is an issue with ComReg having the main powers in this as well.

It was mentioned that a garda would be on secondment but would other officials have some form of warrant cards or identification? This came up previously when I dealt with a copyright Bill and people were going to premises and had to prove who they were. Somebody else should not be able to pretend to be from the competition authority, for example. The question of technology and surveillance comes in as well. Data is the new oil, people tell me, so are the powers going far enough when we consider what is changing? Is flexibility built into this in case we see further change?