Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It bodes badly for the new regulator if the only reason the Minister has given for the watering-down in 2021 of the protections contained in the 2016 regulations is that the 2021 regulations were being made pursuant to the unfair trading practices directive of the European Union, which subsequently came into effect, rather than by the then enterprise Minister pursuant to a groceries Act of 2007. A precursor to the regulator, therefore, brought them in pursuant to the unfair trading directive, and that is a worry for me. Why were all the protections, provided for in what we might call the then Minister, Deputy Bruton's, legislation given it was secondary legislation made by him at the stroke of a pen, watered down? Why were the protections he brought in watered down in 2021 given that in 2020, a Spanish royal decree implemented exactly the same EU law, namely, the unfair trading directive, which this is seeking to implement? Who got to whom? Why was the subsequent one, in 2021, so much more favourable to retailers and so much more detrimental to producers, when we are talking about protecting producers? I welcome the specific powers contained in the Bill, but is there a power to stop hello money, for example, which is a huge problem in the sector, to prohibit the practice of returning unsold goods? I see that the Minister’s officials are nodding and I welcome that. Nevertheless, we cannot get away from the fact the protections of 2016 were watered down in 2021 and that is a trend I want to be reversed, which is why I introduced the amendment.

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