Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

The Bill Fine Gael is introducing is an important one which provides for a badly-needed office. I compliment my colleague, Deputy Hogan, on the huge amount of work he has done on this issue. The basis of this Bill is about getting value for money. While we enjoy an exciting economy, with which we are delighted to be involved and which we hope continues, for reasons that have as much to do with the private as the public sector, we seem to have allowed a rip-off culture to develop in every part of commercial life. There is not one family listening to me tonight which does not understand my point.

It appears that no one is in real control, no one to blow the whistle when products and services are put on display for public consumption, irrespective of price hikes and rip-offs for profit which are not being controlled. For many years, I was informed that competition is the life of trade, in support of which we have some fine examples. Competition has brought services within the ambit of even the lowest paid workers. I need go no further than refer to air fares. It is not many years ago that travel by air was, in most cases, restricted to the well-off. However, that changed with the advent of cut-throat competition with Ryanair versus Aer Lingus and so on. Under certain conditions, it is now possible to get a flight from Dublin to Manchester or London for the same price as a CIE train ticket from Ballinasloe to Dublin. Everyone understands this phenomenon as well as I do and it would not have happened but for the entry of Ryanair into the business.

The reasoning behind this Bill is that one must have someone in absolute control with the legislative power behind him or her to make the system work. We have gone part of the way, but it appears to Fine Gael that there is not enough intensity of control over what is happening in the marketplace. I am not just referring to excessive prices of, for example, a glass of orange or other mineral, about which most people think when one refers to price control or provisions to stop rip-off Ireland hurting people, but rather to more substantial issues.

Members know that the Government is responsible for the greatest rip-off culture imaginable. For example, from a new house built by a young couple for an average of €230,000, the Government will cream off €106,000 in VAT, stamp duty, capital gains tax, planning permission and so on. While the Minister is likely to respond that those charges always existed, they were at a lower level. However, when one considers that the total share of the Exchequer finances derived from the new home market has increased from 3% to 9% in the past seven years, it gives one an idea of rip-off Ireland perpetrated by the Government.

We are in the happy position of enjoying growth rates of 4% to 5%. Moreover, I note from a recent report that we will have growth of 5% next year. We have better working conditions and life is better for many people, but why has the tiger economy left so many people almost as poor as they ever were, with all the goods and services they have to obtain in their daily lives? Competition in itself has not worked and a heavier hand will have to be brought to bear. This is the reason Fine Gael is proposing the well-named Consumer Rights Enforcer Bill 2004. Rights will be enforced to ensure there is competition and that the rip-off concept will be banned from Ireland for all time.

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