Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

In the United States there are no restrictions in terms of planning or on the size of retail units. Many people would suggest that the failure to restrict the size of units there has led to other social problems. Everything is not always as simple as it appears. What we are trying to do is to encourage competition throughout the economy, whether in transport, aviation or telephony. Whatever area of the economy has inadequate competition generally has higher prices and a poorer quality of service and consumers lose out.

We had a specific purpose in appointing this group. We have never before put a group of people together with the sole focus of examining the issue from the consumer perspective. In the past we had various lobbies involved in discussions on consumer matters and got disparate views from groups that examined some of the issues. I appointed this group precisely because of my concern that we do not have an effective consumer lobby here. Worthy and all as the consumers' association is, at its last annual general meeting, which I attended, there were fewer than 30 people present. I have said this publicly and do not intend any disrespect towards the association. Dermot Jewell is a member of this group also.

Generally, people only complain when they have a complaint specific to their own experience and do not tend to come together as an effective group in society to lobby on behalf of consumers. I hope that some of the efforts of the group I have put in place will help to kick-start a more effective consumer lobby like, for example, that in the Netherlands which is the most effective consumer lobby of any European country.

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