Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and congratulate my Fine Gael colleague, Deputy Hogan, on his work in the area.

Reading the Government amendment did not instill confidence in me that it had learnt anything over the summer. I wish to deal with the issue primarily from the perspective of students and young adults. The Minister's predecessor, the Tánaiste, long advocated the "shop around" philosophy as the best way to achieve value for money. It is a lovely notion, and young people may be more likely to do that, but it is not always possible or practical, particularly in more rural areas.

There is no doubt that we live in a high-cost economy, and that is largely because of Government's failure to deal with this issue. The amendment seems to suggest the Minister believes the Competition Authority has the power and resources it needs. If so, he must think again. Some of Ireland's weakest areas in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook in 2005 included Internet costs, in which we were ranked 54th, and mobile telephony, in which we were 53rd. We have one of the highest mobile telephone-to-person ratios in the world and very high computer use. However, we remain extremely uncompetitive in the area, something that has not been adequately addressed.

I welcome last week's establishment, which did not involve the Minister, of a website that will compare mobile telephone charges from different operators in a user-friendly way. For the first time, it provides a real way of comparing tariffs, which are never described in the same way by the different mobile telephone operators. However, that will not deal with the 12-month contract that ties one to a single operator. One is penalised if one does not fulfil the contract, so even if one knows one is being ripped off through comparing the charges and that there is a better offer from another company, one cannot do anything about it, since one is still tied to the original operator for the 12-month lifetime of the contract. If one tries to leave, one is penalised. Whichever way one turns, one will be ripped off. Having the information is not always enough.

Another fee hike for which the Minister can blame no one else is the continuous rise in third level registration fees, which Deputy Hogan also mentioned. It has been extremely dramatic over the last few years, having risen substantially every year since 2002. The only way to avoid that charge is not to go to college, so there is no room for shopping around on that one. The Minister might also tell us how junior or leaving certificate students, who are supposed to receive free education, should shop around to avoid the budget increases in their examination fees over recent years. That unavoidable tax hits many hard-pressed families.

Car insurance is still prohibitive for many young people, and there has been a lack of action in that area too. If a student is sick, he or she is forced to pay more, whether at the GP or the accident and emergency department, and the same is true of medication. If one wishes to go abroad in the summer to earn a few euro to pay for all the other charges, one must pay significantly more for transport than a few years ago.

Student rents are affected by rising ESB and gas prices, and the TV licence fee is also increasing. When they enter the real world and try to get a home, they face development levies starting at around €6,000 when building their first home. If they decide it is prohibitive and try instead to buy a new house, instead of the Government-created development levies affecting them, in some areas they face substantial State payments that add significantly to the cost of their home, always assuming they can afford one in the first place in the context of such dramatically increased costs.

Socialising is becoming ever more expensive, depending on where one lives and likes to meet friends, with high charges for everything from parking one's car to hanging one's coat to buying a drink, whether alcoholic or otherwise. The Government voted down the Fine Gael Consumer Rights Enforcer Bill 2004 in this House and later told us it would set up a national consumer agency, a watered-down version of Deputy Hogan's original proposals. Consumers are no nearer to having their voice heard, and the Minister's rejection of our motion and amendment clearly shows he has not got to grips with this issue.

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