Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation. As with much of the legislation ushered into the House in recent times, it has one eye on the issue, another on the electorate and another on the impending election date.

I am not as impressed as many on the other side of the House by the presentation of this Bill. It is here to encourage the public to believe there is a deep and serious concern on the part of the Government for competition and a reduction in prices for the consumer. Nothing could be further from the truth. It reminds me of the run-up to the last general election. The same Minister who is introducing this Bill abolished the health boards, to resolve the problems in the health services. Those of us who remember that can only ask what was the real purpose of that exercise.

Notwithstanding that the legislation needed updating, its format and the manner in which it was introduced is nothing more than a smokescreen to divert public attention from unrecorded inflation and to pretend the Government is concerned about the impact on the consumer. The consumer is now a much sought after personality and is mentioned at every opportunity, as if he or she matters. The consumer does not matter in this country and is the last person thought of at the end of the line. The consumer is the one who pays the piper through the nose every time. The unfortunate consumers, waiting at the end of the line and having shouldered the burdens of Government taxation and broken promises, have their heads on the block once again.

Let us look at the changing scene for retailing in this country. Like it or not, due to the planning policies of local authorities and for other reasons, we have arrived at a situation where most towns and villages will no longer possess any shops. The many obstructions which prevent consumers from purchasing goods where they want means that not many retailers will remain in this city in a few years' time. Consumers are being forced to the new shopping complexes on the north, west and south sides. I do not know whether that is deliberate policy or merely represents indulgences on the part of planners, who should have seen that the lack of adequate parking and convenience for consumers would cause shopping centres to move away.

A feature of today's marketplaces brought to my attention by people who shop on a regular basis is that it is not unusual for certain lines of groceries and household goods to disappear from shelves for a couple of weeks at a time. Why does that happen? The groceries order attempted to address these issues and this Bill purports to do likewise. I put it to the Minister of State that products are taken off the shelf to muscle suppliers into providing better deals. In reply to anybody who says this does not and cannot happen, I say that it can and does happen when major retailers develop excessive muscles. I do not know what research has been conducted by the Department on this matter but this legislation is supposed to address practices such as hello, goodbye and how are you money.

After discussing similar problems ten or 15 years ago, we decided the groceries order was a necessary measure. The entire retail structure has changed since then, some say for the better and others for the worse. It is becoming rare to find the owner of a filling station and say hello or to meet the same person on return visits. The previous relationship between customer and retailer has gone. That is fine in the great conurbations but I wonder whether the people of rural areas have a competitive service which is of benefit to consumers.

In the area of telecommunications, the consumer is at the end of the line. There is much talk about mobile phone services and competition, but competition works in every country in Europe except here. We have the most expensive and least effective service in Europe. That is crazy in this free marketing time when competition should be encouraged. There is something wrong with what we are doing and, while I do not know whether adequate research is being devoted to finding out the cause, application needs to be made in that area because it will soon be too late. The quality and standard of our service will degenerate to such an extent that we will become a laughing stock. If anybody believes I exaggerate, they should make the comparison for themselves.

In terms of the nationwide delivery of broadband, there were supposed to be 500,000 customers two years ago, yet we have half that number today. It is crazy that a concept we were led to believe in is not delivering. The mechanics of the marketplace need to be carefully examined and questions need to be asked about why we are not delivering to the consumer.

As we live in a time of low interest rates, every utility service in the market, whether toll road or telecommunications system, is an investment house. They are better than banks because they make money on a regular basis. Once again, the poor old consumer is at the end of the line, bearing the burden and coughing up every time more is clapped on.

In recent days, the Minister for Transport appeared on television, looking like he wanted to be elsewhere, and announced that tolls will be lifted from the M50. The impression was given that we would eliminate the blockages in the system and allow the traffic flow along the road. The consumer thinks about this for about 12 hours, only to find a slight problem. What the Minister really meant is that he wants to snare more unfortunate consumers so that they cannot get on or off the M50 without being screwed to the wall and having the money extracted from them whether they like it. We should be protecting the consumers whose contribution to the Exchequer amounts to €5.2 billion and will rise to €6 billion next year.

The little old consumer that so concerns this caring Government sits on the M50 for two or three hours, if lucky, and pays tolls and taxes. In return, he or she has to face four obstructions where there was previously one. Those obstructions are not yet fully designed and——

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