Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To follow up on what Deputy Shanahan said, this Bill will allow regulators to take class actions. I understand that is not allowed under present legislation covering regulators. It has been one of their discontents that they have to take individual actions every time an infringement crops up. Will this automatically transpose into legislation governing regulators? Some of them, including the financial services ombudsman as far as I recall, seek such powers. Will we need to see amendments to the various regulator Acts to accommodate this new power? We have many regulators and they may well be the qualified entities.

I also ask for clarification on the Department's decision regarding opt in or opt out. I take it what is meant there is that if someone is part of a class of consumers that is affected by this collective harm, and someone takes an action, he or she will have the choice of opting in, or being included from the outset, and then having to opt out. What is our actual decision on this?

Do we have any experience from other EU countries that have perhaps had legislation of this nature before us? How successful has that legislation been in tackling some of these issues?