Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Jim O'Callaghan. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. It is very interesting to hear Deputies say we are being forced by a European directive. Do people not understand how European directives are created? They are done with the co-operation of the Government through the European Council and with the co-operation of Irish MEPs in Europe. I fundamentally welcome this and I welcome the work the Government has done with European partners to ensure that the directive can be transposed into domestic legislation in an efficient form, in the format of this Bill.

Many Members have talked about various companies and practices but the important thing to remember is that at the heart of this Bill is the right of the consumer and the protection of the consumer. I have no doubt that if this Bill is to be effective and faith is to be given to competition in the State, we need to see the powers granted by this Bill for administrative fines put into action very quickly. Consumers and people across the country need to know that this legislation is on their side. They need to see the cartels broken up. They need to see both the National Competition Authority and the CCPC acting in a manner that is in the interests first and foremost of the consumers.

There are one or two areas that have developed in recent years that I am particularly concerned about. They require the attention of this legislation. The first is the post-Brexit reliance on British providers in so many areas and the fact that the UK is outside of this directive. It is key that this legislation ensures that operators within the State are in line with all that. Many people refer to insurance in a particular area, namely childcare providers and child recreation centres, which only have the option of one insurance provider and the impact that had with rising premiums leading to centres and schools closing and to fees and costs going up.

It impacted not just on parents and guardians in the State, but on children. I hope that this legislation will be used to ensure that a sense of fairness is created in this market. As Deputy Bruton mentioned, the main areas that the Bill seeks to address are collusive behaviour and the abuse of dominance. There is a vagueness that will need to be laid out specifically so as to ensure that the various agencies can act in an appropriate and, importantly, timely manner to identify these.

I will use this opportunity to speak to the one area that this Bill does not address and that I have previously raised with the Ministers of State, Deputies Troy and Fleming, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, namely, competition in the mortgage market. It is detrimental to consumers that the level of choice for mortgages is so restrictive, particularly compared with European averages. The average interest rate in Ireland is 2.73% but 1.28% in the eurozone. This comes down to competition and choice. We want European providers entering the Irish market so that we can tell homeowners and prospective homeowners that there is competition, which will put more money in their pockets and take the pressure off the weekly budget.

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