Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I wished the Minister well last Thursday when he introduced the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2010 in the House. He made a good start by indicating his receptiveness to Opposition amendments. Ministers who close their minds generally end up with the smile on the other side of their face because we chase them up.

Will this merger generate any savings? There is a significant degree of overlap across many agencies in all sectors. Deputy Varadkar has been on the case on this issue for some time and is broadly correct in the points he has made. The Competition Authority does important work in dealing with cartels and so on. However, I am concerned at the manner in which it has chased up some issues. We will have nothing but ghost towns if it continues with its current policy where pricing is the only parameter that counts and there is no consideration for value and service.

The Competition Act 2002 has been a source of great problems for people in part-time employment such as artists, freelance journalists and actors, with the bodies that represent them being defined as undertakings. That was never put forward as the desired interpretation during the course of any debate on the legislation in this House. However, it is the interpretation arrived at by the Competition Authority which seems to have carte blanche in this regard. Does the Minister agree that the people to whom I referred are entitled to have collective bargaining rights and negotiating rights attributed to bodies on their behalf? I refer to the Irish Pharmacy Union, Irish Dental Association and Irish Equity, the SIPTU branch representing actors, among others. Surely the time has come to honour the commitment given in Towards 2016 by amending section 4 of the legislation to reflect the will of this House. The Competition Authority must adhere to the provisions of legislation passed by the Oireachtas.

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