Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 28 May 2026

Public Accounts Committee

Competition and Consumer Protection Commission – Financial Statements 2024

2:00 am

Mr. Brian McHugh:

We have a number of ongoing investigations into a variety of markets. Like all markets, some elements are online. Again, I will not say too much about the investigations we have ongoing. I have mentioned some in terms of the sectors around betting, ports, IT and healthcare. Some of them will touch on the online market. We are very much of the opinion that there are significant breaches of competition law occurring. Particularly in cartels, it can be very difficult to uncover them. They are secret by their nature. We have no doubt today that cartels exist in Ireland and consumers suffer significant harm.