Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate and I welcome the engagement of the Minister. Although I am coming to the Bill at a late stage, I appreciate that the Minister has sought to engage seriously with the deliberations that took place on Committee Stage and reflected them on this Stage.

The issue I wish to repeat is built-in obsolescence, particularly in electronic goods. If the Minister takes away one thing tonight to bring to the Council of Ministers meetings he attends, it is that we must have some form of critique of the capitalist model that takes away from the consumer the right to repair something such as an iPhone. Equally, consumers must not be bound into contracts in a way that gives the whip hand to Apple, Samsung or any of these big global conglomerates. Arguably, given the current model we have in Europe, they have greater traction with the European Commission than perhaps a Council of Ministers might have. If strong Ministers at the Council push back against these big conglomerates in a way that protects the citizens and consumers of Europe, so that citizens have that right to repair built in as a principle, they would be doing a very good day's work.

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