Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and congratulate the Minister of State and his staff on bringing it forward. I remember studying a subject grandly entitled "personal property" in UCD about a hundred years ago or so. At that time, the basic legislation in this area was the Sale of Goods Act 1893. That Act provided that goods had to be of merchantable quality and-or fit for the purpose required. There was, of course, subsequent legislation in 1980 and a European influence through directives in 1982 and 1983 which seem to me to have caused more confusion than elucidation. However, the Bill, which enshrines a plethora of consumer protection measures into law, will certainly rectify that and I very much welcome it.

One of the attractive features of the Bill is that it creates greater flexibility in respect of things like price reductions and withholding payments for goods that have already been partly paid for. Much of this is happening in real life already, but it is very important for it to be underpinned in law, as is now being done, and I very much welcome that. The Bill deals with several lacunae in the law as it exists currently, especially in the area of advertising, and I very much welcome that. I listened to an earlier section of the debate and heard Deputy O'Reilly referring to this in the context of beauty cream. I do not have much personal experience of that material.

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