John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this legislation. I fully support the Bill and the objectives behind it and as Deputy Kyne noted previously, it is a sign of the Government's commitment to the importance of competition in reigniting the economy over the next few years. I wish to mention specifically a couple of areas pertaining to this legislation. It is to be welcomed that the fines and sanctions available to the Competition Authority and the courts are to be increased in line with the seriousness of the offences under discussion. Deputy Kyne was right when he referred to how people talk about white collar crime as though it was a better category of crime than any other. Serious action must be taken against those who are found to be in breach of competition law, although this has not always been the case heretofore. The updating of this area of law through this Bill is to be welcomed. The Probation of Offenders Act 1907 is hardly legislation that could be considered to be relevant to competition law in present day Ireland and this Bill, among other things, will remove references to that Act from competition law.

I wish to mention a couple of areas in respect of which the Minister might respond in his concluding remarks. Specifically, I refer to the controversial role of the Competition Authority in respect of agriculture. Most of the activities of the authority, which is an important body in that area, have focused on its dealings with the IFA and I note its seizure of electronic equipment from that organisation, as well as the entering of its offices in Dublin. The authority must engage in a firm examination of both the relationship between the consumer and the shopkeeper or multiple grocer and the relationship between the multiples and the producers, that is, their suppliers. This aspect of competition has not been successfully investigated in the past and some practices, such as the payment of so-called hello money and so on that are known to exist in Ireland, have not been rooted out by the Competition Authority. The Minister should indicate the current position with regard to the provision of a statutory code of conduct for the aforementioned relationship between the large multiples and their suppliers, the primary producers. The Government has stated it is interested in pursuing a statutory code rather than the mooted voluntary code between those two sectors.

I also agree with Deputy Tom Hayes on the issue of below cost selling of alcohol. All Members are familiar with large advertisements, particularly in the Sunday newspapers, that usually are led by banner headlines regarding the sale of alcoholic products considerably below cost. The large multiples are in a position to use these products as a loss leader to get people in the doors to spend money on other items. At the same time, I refer to smaller suppliers, whether it be smaller off-licences or local public houses. I am not here to hold a particular candle for publicans but I believe the local pub is an intrinsic part of the community in many rural areas. Many of them have closed and I believe more will do so unless something is done about the abuse of power by the large multiples on the issue of below cost selling of alcohol.

In addition, while this may be straying a little from the remit of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the issue of the licensing laws themselves is an intrinsic part of this problem. The system that operates in this State at present is that owners of public houses pay their licence fees based on their turnover. However, owners of off-licences or large multiples with off-licences attached pay a standard annual fee, regardless of the volume of alcohol sold through those outlets. We have moved in recent years to a position where the majority of alcohol is sold in the off-licence business. The aforementioned large multiples are in a unique position to be able to use these alcohol products as a loss leader to get people in the doors for other purchases. It is a highly unfair system whereby publicans continue to pay a licence fee based on turnover, whereas the multiples pay a flat rate. As the Department of Justice and Equality deals specifically with the issue of licensing, I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, to convey to that Minister the inequities that exist in the current system with regard to the fees being paid by the large multiples and off-licences in general and in respect of the sale of alcohol in the future.

This Bill is quite technical and I support it fully. The idea of upgrading the sanctions available is appropriate and updating the legislation that applies to competition is important. However, this should be a first step by the Government, which I am sure it is, towards introducing further rigorous enforcement of competition to different sectors of the economy.

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