Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State's remarks. I support the investment fund amendments, which are required to implement an EU directive that will provide for an expanded financial services sector and enhance its administrative potential and the prospects for high value added employment. The success of the IFSC and its companies is testament to the need to amend the Acts mentioned to ensure they will continue to expand.

However, I am not satisfied the Minister has decided to make a small number of changes to consumer and financial services regulation at the tail end of the Bill, which, ultimately, transposes a technical EU directive. The lack of a consumer policy in the State has been brought to the attention of every Member. The consumer strategy group was established by the Tánaiste with the purpose of addressing this issue. The group attended a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business recently and my colleague, Deputy Howlin, and I had an opportunity to discuss the important recommendations made by it with the chairperson. We were disappointed with the lack of conviction on the part of the interim board representatives regarding the direction of consumer policy. The focus is on one market segment, namely, the grocery trade.

If the Minister felt it appropriate to do so, the legislation presented an opportunity to put the national consumer agency on a statutory footing. The interim board has been established without a representative of the Consumers Association of Ireland, which had a member on the group established to review consumer policy. The association has made a major voluntary contribution to the promotion of information and good ideas to amend consumer law to make it more palatable to the consumer.

All of us have been lobbied about the over-regulation that applies to a number of facets of company law. The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Michael Ahern, has recommended a number of proposals for discussion by the company law review group arising from the audit and accountancy Bill, which both Deputy Howlin and I warned on its proposal was a sledgehammer to break a nut rather than a more balanced approach appropriate to the small business sector.

The issues of compliance statements, the regulatory environment, the changes to the Groceries Order and the need to establish an independent national consumer agency are important but all the Minister of State has done is provide for a modest amendment to the fines appropriate to the Restrictive Practices Act 1982 and the Sale of Goods and Services Act 1978. I welcome the increases, which update fines set 30 years ago. However, the Minister has missed an opportunity to implement an appropriate consumer protection policy and establish a national consumer agency, which would have meant that we did not have to wait another 18 months or for another election to put it on a statutory footing. For that reason, I oppose that segment of the legislation, which does not go far enough to address issues of concern.

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