Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I am worried about what the Minister would tie the agency to. What is even more worrying is that the Bill proposes to limit the nature of the interaction the National Consumer Agency will have with the Oireachtas. This is an important point. The Minister is defining the way in which the agency will interact with the Oireachtas. Section 17(1) of the Bill states that the chief executive of the National Consumer Agency "shall, at the request in writing of an Oireachtas Committee, attend before it to give account for the general administration of the Agency as may be required by the Committee". So by law, the chief executive of the agency will be restricted by the terms set out in the Bill to engaging with members of the Oireachtas on bland issues of general administration. He or she will have nothing to do with policy issues as they affect consumers, legislative measures required to address inconsistencies in law or criticisms of Ministers for not doing enough to help consumers. The Minister will forgive me if I say the agency is fine in theory but that it is not the type of watchdog we would expect it to be.

One major concern I have about the Bill is that it openly discriminates against some of the smaller businesses that operate in the State and which form the bedrock of our enterprising economy. There are many small businesses in the State that operate on the basis of one person or a husband and wife team. They are small businesses which do not have big resources and often operate from the family home. They are equally entitled to good service, fair play, not being ripped off and access to a prosecuting authority. However, under this Bill, they are excluded. The Bill only applies to consumers who are defined as a natural person acting for purposes unrelated to the person's trade or business. I can think of no policy justification for excluding this section of consumers from the scope of the legislation and regard the proposal in the Bill to do so as unfair, discriminatory and anti-small business. There is no reason inconsistent levels of consumer protection should be afforded to different segments of the population.

I am also concerned the Bill, as presented, will introduce another layer of bureaucracy and regulation, which we must avoid. Once this Bill is enacted, we will have a number of sectors of the economy which will potentially face double regulation on consumer issues by both their sectoral regulatory authority and the National Consumer Agency. In the Minister's contribution this evening, he referred to one such authority, the Financial Regulator. I am certainly glad he took note of this particular problem in his contribution and I look forward to hearing the changes he will make on Committee Stage. The last thing we want is duplication and overregulation because we already have enough. Both the Minister and I, and I am sure other Members of the House, get a considerable number of complaints about them. We want to see a system established that ensures we have a light rather than a heavy touch. The financial services sector is well regulated with necessary bodies such as the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Competition Authority and the Financial Regulator. I am interested in seeing what direction the Minister will head in respect of this issue on Committee Stage.

The telecommunications sector will face regulatory review from the National Consumer Agency, the Competition Authority and ComReg. Before we extend the regulatory creep even further into Irish business, we need to be sure there is justification for doing so. The Bill talks about co-operation agreements between agencies, which is fine, but in reality, the problem lies with duplicating functions without any necessity to do so. The co-operation agreement between the Competition Authority and ComReg has proved so successful that the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is giving concurrent competition enforcement powers to ComReg in the Communications Regulation Bill, against the advice of the Competition Authority. This is an example of more bureaucracy, more disconnected thinking and more red tape in respect of ComReg. The way we deal with consumers and telecommunications services is difficult. I am getting many complaints about maintenance, repair, broadband roll-out and the overloaded exchanges in various parts of the country. People are not getting the service they expect to receive from what is basically a monopoly provider of fixed lines, but ComReg has not got to grips with the rolling out of a basic service charter one would expect from a regulator at this stage in respect of telecommunications. A total of €4.6 billion was garnered by the State from the sale of Eircom. Eircom has been sold twice since then and we are still no better off in terms of competition, service provision or the roll-out of broadband. We are slowly getting there, but it is too slow for an awful lot of people.

At a time when the rest of Europe is contracting its regulatory overlay of the national economies, we in Ireland are proposing to introduce yet another layer of bureaucracy and duplication. This does no favours to our economy or the international perception of Ireland as a place to do business. Most importantly, it does no favours to consumers who find themselves betwixt and between regulatory agencies with seemingly common functions and all funded by the higher costs for services caused by an increased regulatory burden. The Minister needs to go back to the drawing board on this on Committee Stage.

For the past two years, Fine Gael has called for a consumer rights enforcer. In principle, this Bill goes towards meeting this objective. What we need to see is an agency with real power which will root out blockages to competition and ensure consumers get the fair deal they deserve. Under our proposals, the new body would have the same status as an ombudsman and would cut the umbilical cord with Departments that are largely pulled around the place in respect of vested interests. It will be a proactive champion, watchdog, defender and advocate of consumers' rights and interests. A key feature of the office will be its independence. To be really effective, it needs to be a stand-alone office with its own stall and a secure budget. It should be a proactive champion and a meaningful watchdog for consumers. In addition, the National Consumer Agency should be in a position to conduct regular price surveys that highlight good value and name and shame those charging excessive prices and to regularly create a price league website with tables on all major products to give the best possible information to consumers. This has been done in respect of the financial services sector and I compliment Mary O'Dea, the consumer director in the Irish Financial Service Regulatory Authority, which carries out regular surveys on financial products. This needs to be extended into a wider range of products that affect consumers and their purchasing power. We must develop codes of conduct for service providers and retailers on issues like passing on exchange rate movements, devise and promote a good practice provider quality mark for suppliers of goods and services that agree to be bound by relevant codes of practice and work with local authorities through the directors of community and enterprise sections to drive a pro-consumer agenda at local level.

If we drill down to local authority level and make more use of this organisation, we could provide much more information to consumers at a more local level. We often believe that when we say something at national level or put an advertisement in the national newspapers, it is enough. I am sure the National Consumer Agency will have a budget for advertising, marketing and information campaigns, but we must drill down to an agency at local level. Perhaps, the local authority is a vehicle for doing this.

Consumers should be represented in national partnership agreements and be part of any national agreement. It is clear that, in many instances, recent agreements have been dominated by the producers, not consumers. We need an agency that will not tolerate cartels, monopolies or anti-competitive practices that hurt consumers but will fundamentally give them choice, reduce prices and, in competitive terms, bring more people into the marketplace. That is why Fine Gael is committed to introducing defined time limits for different stages of Competition Authority investigations, in order to address concerns about the length of time investigations take. It is important complainants would be kept regularly informed of the progress of an investigation. We should instruct the Competition Authority to issue an annual report on the implications of State action on competition. Such a report would be able to identify how the State has inhibited or prevented competition and be able to make suggestions about the changes required.

Our system of regulators is creaking and ineffective. We should merge existing regulators so as to have fewer of them and provide a more important role for the Competition Authority to work with them. They should be charged with controlling costs and opening sheltered parts of the economy.

In principle, the Bill is much to be commended but the powers vested in the agency by the Minister to ensure consumers can have confidence in it are inadequate. The Consumer Protection Agency should be independent like an ombudsman. I intend to table the necessary amendments on Committee Stage to give effect to these principles and the proposals outlined in my contribution.

See this speech in context