Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with what Deputy Kelly is saying, but I am not a legal professional and I have to take the best legal advice that is given. I am told that in the context of maximum harmonisation, it is not possible to accept the amendment as submitted. I thank the Deputy for saying that it is an opportunity to make a name and lead the charge on this. There is a working party on consumer protection looking at this issue in Europe, and we can feed into that. We can request that the working party comes back on that at a very early date. We know that with supply-chain issues across the globe at present, it makes more sense to repair than replace.

I concur with Deputy Kelly but I am sure, when he was on this side of the House and received legal advice, he was loath to ignore it. That is where I stand at the moment. I genuinely agree with what he is saying. We need to promote repair over replace. There is a vehicle at the European Commission to do that and it is important that we feed into that process. More importantly, we need to make progress in this area as soon as possible. I cannot, much as I would love to, accept the amendment.

See this speech in context