Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I wish to share time with Deputy Arthur Morgan.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 and to continue a debate that has been taking place for approximately two years. The debate has taken on a prominence far beyond the benefits intended by the Bill and has been deliberately engineered in Government circles to distract from the broader debate on the bad deal consumers have received in recent years. It has been the perfect vehicle for the Government to distract attention from the inflationary policies it introduced prior to the previous general election when it pump-primed the economy for electoral purposes. Then came rip-off Ireland to distract people from the mismanagement of the economy. The issue has been the subject of disproportionate focus.

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