Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact the Bill has been brought before the House. It is not before time. Ireland is renowned for its failures to adequately tackle white-collar and corporate crime. We have seen in this House and in the public discourse how that plays out. A financial scandal is followed by some form of inquiry, usually a very lengthy one, but nobody ever seems to be held to account and then it falls down on that pin as to whether laws or regulations were technically broken. Bizarrely, often the most substantive outcome is that the Irish taxpayer foots a bill simply for seeking answers about impropriety. That is why it is positive to see legislation before us today that seeks not only to empower the CCPC to fully and properly investigate cartels and practices in breach of competition, but also, crucially, to levy penalties upon those operating such illegal ventures and to ensure that those involved in corporate activity are aware of those powers.

A report dating back to 2005 placed the cost at that time to businesses in the State from corporate crime at €2.5 billion every year. While welcoming the Bill against such a backdrop, it is a fair question for people to ask why the Government is only acting now. It is more than three years since the Central Bank called for a senior executive accountability regime codified in legislation. There has been no urgency to do that, as Deputy O'Reilly stated, by two successive governments. In the past 12 months alone, two Oireachtas committees have published reports into the practice of bogus self-employment which defrauds the Exchequer of potentially hundreds of millions of euro, yet it seems that the Government, the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection are reticent to even acknowledge a problem may exist.

The reason for this legislation is simple - the Government is being forced to do it by the European Union, via the ECN+ directive. Although the Bill, like the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021, is welcome, as are the additional powers granted to the CCPC to investigate competition breaches and levy fines, if this is not just to play out as it has before, there are a number of outstanding ancillary issues that are critical. Crucially, the agencies tasked with tackling corporate crime must be adequately resourced if we are to see the full benefit of good legislation. If funds are not forthcoming, it will be entirely apparent that the legislation only arose from an EU diktat, rather than any domestic will to tackle competition breaches. This is an area in which the Government has form.

An area of particular concern to me relates to actions within the agrifood sector. At EU level, the unfair trading practices directive did not go anywhere near far enough, yet the approach taken by the Government was to wait until the very last minute to transpose that directive via statutory instrument and then to do so in the most meagre and minimum form possible. According to a European Commission report published in October, Ireland was one of only five countries to transpose the directive without amending it from the EU regulation. In other words, there were no additional powers to tackle the cartel-like behaviour in the meat industry in particular. Between May and October of last year, the full-time-equivalent head count in the unit that is to act on that legislation actually decreased from three to just two. In that time, it has not heard a single case, which is not surprising given that very few people know the unit exists. Of the much-lauded funding it received, it has not spent a cent on informing farmers and the public of its existence. The only funds that have been spent in the context of unfair trading practices have been the salaries of people who are working within the unit, but we have no idea what precisely that unit is doing.

Legislation to establish an enforcement authority such as a food ombudsman or a meat regulator has been marked as a priority within the legislative agendas last summer, last autumn and again this spring, but we have seen absolutely no progress being made. In the intervening period, we have this legislation that is prescribing additional powers of investigation and providing for the levying of substantial penalties. In our submission on an independent meat regulator, Sinn Féin called for it to be ascribed powers of that exact nature. The question has to be asked why the Government is not prioritising the establishment of an independent meat regulator.

Questions need to be asked regarding the role of the CCPC in dealing with queries and concerns that have been raised by farmers. It has not been acting satisfactorily but the commission will require additional funding and we require an independent meat regulator. My apologies; I thought I had more time.

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