Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I thank the Minister for bringing forward an important Bill because consumer protection must ensure that people get the best service and do not have to accept or pay for services they did not seek in the first place. That is a very important point.

Deputy McManus had been strongly advocating amendments to ensure that refunds would be made. The absence of such a provision was a weakness on the early Stages of the Bill. Deputy McManus has championed that across the political and public arenas.

This is an important Bill. I had very little input into it but our spokesperson on telecommunications did. I hope the Minister will keep an eye on this matter because if new defects come to light it is important that somebody is ready and able to take up the baton to accept that there are inadequacies and be able to deal with them. While ComReg will issue reports and so on I hope that if some irregularity appears at the end of an annual report steps will be taken to remedy that, promote consumer interests and put consumer protection at the top of the agenda.

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