Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I wish to share time with my colleague Deputy Eamon Ryan. I generally welcome this Bill but despite its introduction and the proposal to set up this agency, consumer protection stands lower in Government priorities than it should do. While it is the responsibility of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment it does not feature in the title of his Department. It occupies a debatable place in the Department's objectives.

The Green Party's national convention was addressed by Renate Künast, a former Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture in the Green-SPD government in Germany. The greatest consumer interest is in food, followed by other types of goods and access to services. Other European democracies deal with that by having government briefs that properly reflect that interest. We should perhaps debate not the establishment of a more focused and stronger National Consumer Agency but how consumer protection and relations are viewed as a priority of Government. I hope that when we go to the hustings in a few weeks this will become an important issue and remain so for whoever forms part of the next Government and that there will be a Department for consumer protection.

The Green Party will not argue against the concept of a stronger and more focused consumer agency. The problem is to what extent does this form an effective rationalisation of consumer agencies, or will there remain several overlapping and conflicting agencies to help consumers seek effective redress under legislation that does not yet exist? How good a consumer advocate will this new agency be? The Minister must address the conflict in his brief of Enterprise, Trade and Employment if we are to have a Department that is more focused on consumer protection. It is rather like an episode of "Yes Minister" because the Minister should represent the interests of his Department at Cabinet but there is a conflict in those interests between representing producers and consumers. No one could play that role effectively. That is why we must address the role of consumer protection in Government rather than establish this type of agency.

I noted Deputy Upton's interest in labelling. There are many issues to be tackled in respect of how food products are labelled. There has been some progress on this in recent years, for example, the listing of ingredients and whether that is done in a user-friendly format. Health implications, however, need to be more clearly labelled on many food products. Consumers are growing more aware of how and where a product is produced but environmental concepts are not addressed on labelling. The new agency could consider a labelling requirement for food miles in particular.

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