Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Due to a lack of funding, the Competition Authority is in a very difficult position and simply focuses on business to consumer type practices. It does not really have the function to deal with business-to-business type practices. I have been using the example of newsagents, which were forced to bring a High Court injunction into their interactions with one of their suppliers at a cost of €29,000, which is an onerous expense for any small group of organisations. That money had to be spent as the Competition Authority did not have the capacity to focus on that element at all. The Minister's point about enforcement is moot on this occasion as the capacity was not there to enforce. If the market is allowed the ability to even up the power balance, the Competition Authority would not have to do that work.