Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I am confused by the Minister's answer. If memory serves, the legislation to which he refers is the Competition (Amendment) Act 2010, which was recently passed by the Houses and which allows the Minister to appoint, on a temporary basis, some members of the authority. The consumer and competition Bill, the purpose of which will be to merge the Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority and to extend the powers of the resultant new body, has yet to appear. My question is similar to that posed by Deputy Clune. Some 15 months have passed since the introduction of the relevant budget in April 2009. I accept that a week is a long time in politics. At present, a day is a long time in politics. However, why has it taken 15 months to draft the relevant legislation?

See this speech in context