Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Given that this is my first time to speak in the Chamber today, I will take a moment to mark the passing of Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian journalist who was shot while trying to cover a raid by Israeli occupation forces in a refugee camp in Jenin. The shooting of a journalist trying to document truth is a tragic and deliberate crime that violates all international laws and norms. However, I will leave that for the moment.

There is much to celebrate and welcome in this Bill, particularly with regard to enhanced digital services and enhanced protection in respect of digital services. There is a bewildering array of services and ways to engage with these services. Many people pride themselves on being digital natives, but there are many who are not. Many struggle to understand what is being put in front of them, how to engage these services and how to protect themselves. Anything we can do to protect people who are not tech savvy or au fait with some of these services is very important.

There is an issue if we are to protect and vindicate rights. Giving consumers these rights and protections is very useful and important but they will only be useful and meaningful if we provide full enforcement. Deputies have spoken about how the CCPC struggles in terms of its resources and ability to enforce the powers it has. This is something we need to address. I would love the Minister of State to commit to providing more resources for its enforcement.

I am also quite taken by, and strongly welcome, section 13. This provides an ability to extend some of the regulations to cover services where personal data is given as consideration. This dovetails with the Data Protection Commission. Let us be honest: I could probably fill 20 minutes speaking about this. It is a subject the justice committee has dealt with extensively. It provides a perfect example. If we allow the regulator, which is the watchdog, to slip and if we do not give it the resources it needs, then regulation becomes meaningless. Something that strikes me about this is the recent case taken by the Belgian data protection authority seeking to move against the incessant pop-ups we all get. They have been ruled to be in breach of the general data protection regulation. This comes back to my original point on digital services. Other Deputies have also raised this issue. When end user service agreements pop up in front of people when they are sitting at their computers most people click through them without reading. We need to be much more aware of the importance of consumer protection in this regard. There are deliberate attempts to obfuscate, spin and get in the way of consumer rights. As I have said, these have been held to be in breach of the general data protection regulation.

Another element in the Bill that I found interesting is section 46 on the rights of recipients of gifts. This is a small but important reform of privity of contract. We have danced around the edge of reform of privity of contract for a while. The Consumer Insurance Contracts Act 2019 included some reform in this regard. A very detailed report on the much-needed reform of privity of contract by the Law Reform Commission from 2008 is gathering dust. It provides a suggested Bill in its appendix based on international legislation that has reformed privity of contract.

We are addressing issues with regard to implied terms and unfair terms in these consumer contracts. On the wider issue, if we could address the fundamentals of privity of contract it would be very important. Our courts have done their best. I cannot remember which judge referred to the attempts to address privity of contract as simply judicial subterfuge in the face of a lack of legislative reform. Here we have a report from 2008 with a model Bill. It is sitting there gathering dust. I found one parliamentary question on it from 2015 addressed to the Department with responsibility for trade asking whether it could do something. The Department replied it was up to the then Department of Justice and Law Reform. There did not even seem to be a follow-up question to that Department. I appreciate many of the issues I am speaking about fall into the area between justice, which often deals with regulation, and the Department with responsibility for trade. I stress that we have danced around the edge of reform of privity of contract. We are doing some good work on it here but it needs wider reform. It is a nettle we need to grab.

Overall I believe the Bill will ultimately enhance consumer protection. Consumer protection will only be enhanced in real terms if there is money in the enforcement and if people are aware of their rights. People need the information to know what their rights are so they can ensure their rights are protected and vindicated. This comes back to deliberate attempts to obfuscate and screen people from their rights. I would love to see whether we could resource the CCPC to run an information campaign so people know what their rights are. We are producing the Bill to transpose an EU directive. It is very important that we tell people what their rights are now and what they can do for numerous reasons. It would enable them to vindicate their rights. They would have the knowledge that gives them the power to vindicate their rights. It is important to show the protections the European Union gives to its citizenry and that the EU is out there looking to support people and protect them. It is important to show citizens the everyday benefits the EU gives to put lie to deliberate attempts to portray the EU as doing quite the opposite.

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