Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

The legislation will allow the competition body to investigate complaints and will provide for sanctions. It will give extensive powers to the competition body to search premises and remove documents.

The UK model, as the Deputy knows, still has a deficiency in that it is still trying to find an efficient and effective way to deal with the issue of how one compels. We are hoping that through the voluntary code and the interaction between both sides there will be a fair balance between the stakeholders. This will form the basis for a mandatory code that can be put in place as part of the legislation. We hope Mr. Travers, with his experience, will be able to bring the two together and that it will be possible to put a voluntary code in place.

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