Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the powers that are available to the CCPC, in 2022, the Competition Act 2002 was amended in 2022. The Competition (Amendment) Act 2022 transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Union to create a specific new criminal offence of bid-rigging. That Act identified several practices that would be deemed to be criminal behaviour, some of which the Deputy just described. The reason that change was made was to ensure the CCPC would have sufficient enforcement powers to combat bid-rigging effectively.

We do all we can to give the CCPC and similar bodies the resources they need to implement laws like this. It goes without saying that if the Deputy has any founded concern regarding any bidding processes not being conducted appropriately, I am sure she will raise that directly with the CCPC because she may have very legitimate concerns that merit scrutiny or investigation by the CCPC.

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