Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This legislation is welcome. All of us have come across situations of price fixing and anti-competitive practices in the State. The insurance industry is probably the most obvious one people are aware of. There are many examples of it across all kinds of situations.

One example that certainly comes straight to my mind was during the early 2000s when grant schemes were in place for farmers to build slatted sheds. I remember two brothers who lived not far from me. Around the year 2001, one of them built a large industrial shed, which was probably as big as this Chamber or bigger, and it had an insulated roof. Two years later, his brother, a farmer, was building a slatted shed with a grant. The shed part of it was probably one third of the size of the other shed, yet it was twice the price. The excuse at the time, when all of these guys were putting up sheds, was that the world price of steel had gone through the roof. Then, a few years later when the grants ended and were finished, all of a sudden the world price of steel fell again and the price of sheds went down again. I am sure the Minister of State would also have been aware of that. Even in his own constituency there was plenty of that happening.

It is a huge problem all over the State. I often think of this when, in fairness, all of us in here are looking to get houses built and looking to get various programmes in place to encourage development and to encourage work to happen. Very often when that occurs, the particular industries involved use it as an opportunity to push up prices to the detriment of the customer. We are all very aware that when the State has a role in such a process, when the State is paying for it, or when the State is providing a grant for it, this is a kind of green light to drive the arm in as far as you can. We need to have firm regulation to ensure this does not happen and we can stop it from happening so that the public in general and the taxpayer get a fair deal. Very often in these cases it is the taxpayer who ends up being wronged and being robbed by these unscrupulous people who engage in that type of behaviour.

This legislation goes a good distance to try to resolve that. We hope it has moved us all in the right direction. Of course, it is coming very late in the day. For years those of us on the Opposition side of the House, and indeed the Minister of State and his party when they were on this side of the House, were calling for similar legislation and for things to move faster in this regard. It has taken so long that one wonders if it is because the EU directive came into play forcing this to happen that we are now in this position. This is one of the key questions many people have. There has been such hesitancy on the part of the State and by official Ireland to take a real hard look at how corporate Ireland operates and how so many people in so many positions throughout the State can seem to ride roughshod over people's rights, especially their economic rights, when it comes to such situations.

The Bill is welcome. It is a move in the right direction. Whatever bodies or commission are put in place and whatever way we do this, we need assurance it has the correct amount of funding and resources in place, not just to be a regulator but also to be an enforcer of the regulations.

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