Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome this Bill. This amending legislation is one the county could have had sooner. It highlights the fact that, as a country, we had lost competitiveness. I was interested to read a reference in The Economist last week that we are not improving our competitiveness, but that is not the case. For the first time in a number of years relative to our main competitors, particularly in Europe, we have significantly increased our competitiveness. While we are all aware of the importance of bringing in foreign direct investment, there are several pillars to that. They are all of equal importance but restoring competitiveness is crucial to the recovery of our small indigenous sector and to attracting more foreign direct investment. I welcome that this amending legislation is before us. This Bill also highlights there are positives and a focus from the EU-IMF deal in that for too long we were drifting along. Elements that were part of the troika deal with our country were included in our party's election manifesto and, subsequently, in the programme for Government. Competitiveness is one element in that respect.

The Minister touched on the specifics. I would like to highlight one area in the banking sector, and I am not referring to this sector because Deputy Mathews is in the Chair. I received a representation regarding our banking system. Competition in banking has been lost to a certain extent because we have had to restructure the banks, particularly the two pillar banks. AIB and the EBS have been merged. I welcome that the EBS reduced its interest rates by 0.25% today but AIB, which is the umbrella bank, has a base standard interest rate of 3.25% whereas the EBS interest rate, prior to today's reduction, was 4.95%. Two banks under the same umbrella are charging their customers different rates. In this sector there is effectively no competition at present bearing in mind that people are not in a position to change mortgage lenders. I encourage the Minister to consider measures to address that to allow for a more fair approach, given that people are now effectively customers of the same institution.

We must also move to restore our competitiveness and to get the banking sector back up and running, on which the Government has started to made good progress. Great progress has been made on the third area of importance, that of ensuring we have a good and strong supply of well-educated people in the labour market. The final area of developing a strong economy is to have a fair tax system in place. The Government's commitment to keeping our corporation tax rate low encourages enterprise and competition.

I compliment the Minister on bringing forward this Bill and encourage him to continue to bring forward measures that will allow all enterprises to be competitive which in turn will benefit the people who pay for the goods and services. As a peripheral island nation, we probably have to work harder than some of our European competitors at being competitive. I encourage the Minister to continue on that journey.

Speaking from the perspective of having a business, I recently checked my mobile phone bills and noted there has been a significant reduction in that cost element through increased competition. It took a while for that reduction to come about. Competition yields benefits. While five and ten year sentences will not be handed down in all instances of the practices outlined in the Bill, and one would hope they would not be required, they send a clear signal that the Government expects and demands better competition within our economy.

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