Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

There is a need to do both. Obviously the role of the director is to enforce the law. She has made some valuable suggestions in the area of more display orders for the medical profession, dentists and doctors. From time to time the Director of Consumer Affairs makes her opinions available to me and obviously we act on them in most cases. The role of that office is to enforce the law and to deal with the criticisms consumers bring to her attention. It is not the role of that office to be an advocate or to carry out a constant review of legislation.

Structures may need to be examined. For example, some have suggested the Competition Authority and the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs, in the future, may be more appropriate in one location because they are two sides of the same coin. That may be an issue on which the new group can advise. Together with the consolidation of the law, we will have resources to carry out research into areas where prices appear to be out of sync with other European countries. I have provided considerably more resources to the Consumers Association of Ireland than it had prior to my becoming Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

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