Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

My understanding of the amendment is obviously different from that of the Minister of State. We are not looking for the Government to enact the advice provided by the Competition Authority. The amendment merely requests that there be a response to such advice. The idea behind it is to prevent reports from being allowed to gather dust. Under the relevant legislation, there is a facility whereby the Houses can actively consider the reports submitted by, for example, the Ombudsman. As a result, a level of legislative or policy change can be brought about. In general, the response of the Government is grossly disproportionate to the scale of the problem. As stated, this is a relatively minor amendment which seeks to ensure the relationship between the Government and the authority would be stronger in the future.

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