Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I ask the Minister to investigate what is blatantly obvious to anyone who knows the industry, namely anti-competitive practices by large brewing companies in Ireland.

They are abusing their scale or market dominance to have basically exclusionary deals with publicans, large-scale publicans in the main. Large brewers are providing free stock, advance discounts, capex or cash investments to on-trade publicans on condition of excluding competitors and their beers or ciders. This is a serious issue for the industry. I am bringing legislation, which the Government is supporting, to the House to allow craft brewers to sell their products and grow. Those provisions are being neutralised by what I feel are anti-competitive practices whereby large brewing companies are coming in, offering all these incentives and basically telling craft brewers and, dare I say it, other brewers, to take their stock off the shelves and off draft. The are telling publicans they will give them funds, that they will pay for refurbishment, give them free kegs and even cash as long as they get rid of the other brands. How is that not illegal? No-one can tell me it is not anti-competitive. It already happened in Greece, where a subsidiary of Heineken had a large-scale fine put on in the tens of millions. There was a case in Greece where a small brewer took a high court action for similar practices. It is going on here in Ireland.

I was in a pub in Cork recently where there were 21 taps of which 19 were from the one brewing company. There were two for Guinness because, as we all know, they cannot get rid of the Guinness. Did anyone else try to get into that pub? Of course. Why are they not there? This is happening all over Dublin and all over the country. They go to the largest pub in each town, the opinion forming pub, and try to influence it. They offer to do a deal with that publican that if he takes out the rest, or at least takes them off draught, they will look after him. I have a list in my hand. Basically every county in Ireland is on it.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, is well aware of this. It has had a number of complaints. I do not think it has the resources to deal with them. It is not a priority. This is affecting jobs all over the country. My county has four craft brewers. I look at Bulmers in Clonmel and I know across the country they are absolutely being devastated by this decision. I know of one brewer, a Munster brewer, who gave out about being taken out of a pub and was then taken out of a range of pubs in a geographical area because they put their head above the parapet and made a complaint. This is not on.

We need the Minister of State to get on to the CCPC to say this needs to be investigated properly once and for all and ensure that these anti-competitive practices stop to allow a fledgling industry to grow, to allow for fair competition and to ensure that other laws such as tax laws are being adhered to properly across the board. We must ensure that people are being protected and there is not a dominant brewing company or companies in this country, originally from outside this country, behaving in an anti-competitive way and costing Irish people jobs. The bottom line is that if this is not investigated, jobs will continue to be lost.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Kelly for raising this issue. I note his interest in this area and the Bill which is going through the House currently which he introduced in 2017. At the time, he said the Bill was inspired by the wild gypsy brewery in Templemore-----

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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The White Gypsy Brewery. I will give the Minister of State a few bottles.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is alright; I do not drink. I have been all over the country and have seen the importance of the craft brewery industry and the role it is playing in rural areas where we might not otherwise get industry. It is an important sector in Ireland and I very much note Deputy Kelly's interest in it.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, to which the Deputy referred, is the statutory body responsible for the enforcement of domestic and EU competition law in the State. It is important to point out that section 9(5) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 provides that the CCPC is independent in the performance of its functions, including carrying out investigations of alleged anti-competitive practices, which the Deputy has alleged. As investigations and enforcement matters generally are part of the day-to-day operational work of the CCPC, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, has no direct function in such matters.

Competition rules seek to provide everyone with better quality goods and services at lower prices by ensuring that firms compete solely on their merits. In a competitive market, the simplest way for a company to gain more market share is to offer a better price than its competitors. This is not only good for consumers; when more people can afford to buy products, it encourages businesses to produce and boosts the economy in general.

In a competitive market, businesses will try to make their products different from the rest so they are more attractive. That is a very important part of the marketing of any product. This results in greater choice: consumers can select the product that offers the right balance between price and quality. To deliver this choice and produce better products businesses need to be innovative. It is very important for any business to be innovative. That is why some of the smarter craft brewing companies will do well with their products, design, production techniques and services.

Businesses may freely enter into a contract whereby one business agrees to buy from or supply all of its goods or services to the other. Such agreements may create benefits for businesses, competition and ultimately consumers. For example, a supplier and retailer may agree that only the supplier’s product will be sold in a retailer’s stores, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, allowing the supplier to invest more heavily in the marketing or promotional efforts of the retailer. Exclusivity arrangements between businesses therefore in many cases do not raise competitive concerns and are not necessarily in themselves a breach of competition law. It is only where such agreements could exclude competitors from the entire market, and not individual businesses, that such agreements can be regarded as anti-competitive. Concerns relating to exclusivity agreements are, therefore, examined by the CCPC on a case by case basis.

On foot of complaints made by distributors about exclusivity agreements, the CCPC has indicated that it has examined the use of such incentives in the on-trade supply of alcohol. The CCPC has indicated that it is important to note before a decision can be made on whether it should open an investigation, each complaint is examined through a rigorous screening process. Factors such as the nature of the complaint, the characteristics of the market and the evidence available all have a bearing on this process. After a robust examination it was determined that the CCPC did not have grounds to suspect a breach of the law. The CCPC can only initiate a full investigation where there is sufficient evidence of a suspected breach of Irish or EU competition law.

I understand that the CCPC’s examination has shown that the relevant exclusivity agreements were used in a small number of pubs in the State and that other brewers and-or distributors large and small still had access to the vast majority of pubs and other outlets. I understand that the CCPC will keep under review the potential impact of such arrangements and it will continue to monitor the sector.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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Let us call a spade a spade. The dogs in the street know what is happening here. I appreciate the Minister of State's script but it is actually insulting to the industry. Everyone knows what is going on here. Market dominance is being abused. A whole range of publicans are being approached with these incentives. It is happening everywhere, whether it is rebates, refurbishment, kegs, cash or whatever. There is a whole mix of ways of doing this. I have no problems with publicans getting deals: that is their right. When it means that smaller or medium sized brewers are being excluded, that is wrong - morally wrong and absolutely illegal. This has to be dealt with.

It will probably take "Prime Time" or someone to investigate this in order for action. I am told the Minister, Deputy Humphreys has no direct role.

I have now told the Minister of State what is happening. He can ask the CCPC to investigate it or not. It is his choice but it will probably take something like that for us to have a proper investigation. The real issue is that the CCPC does not have the resources. This would take a sizeable investigation and the CCPC does not have the resources to do this.

Large amounts of cash and resources are being used and these practices are happening in large pubs in all cities and towns in Ireland. Large rebates are being given to publicans if they can show a certain level of sales. I cannot understand anybody who tells me that this is not anti-competitive and I will not accept it. It is a lazy response. Any situation involving market dominance where someone ensures that the products of small players are not allowed on the shelf or to be made available on tap is not acceptable.

The reason publicans have licences which are reviewed every year is because they must act in a certain way. Does this practice whereby some publicans with a licence do not allow competition on their premises constitute an abuse?

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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If Deputy Kelly wants me to go off script, I have no problem doing so. A lot of complaints have already been made to the CCPC about these alleged practices referred to by the Deputy. When it investigated them, it found-----

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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It did not investigate them.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Well it had to look for evidence to investigate them. Evidence is extremely important. If one was in a court of law in the morning, one would need evidence. If it is an issue of resources, I will bring the Deputy's concerns to the Minister to raise the issue with the CCPC. As I said, the CCPC is independent. It is important that if there is an independent body there, it is allowed to do its job. As it rightly pointed out in the so-called script referred to by the Deputy, it has looked at this but it does not have the evidence. If the Deputy has evidence, he should go to the CCPC and produce that evidence. I am sure it will have no problem further examining the evidence produced by the Deputy given the concerns of a law maker like the Deputy and his interest in this area. It would do the Deputy's career in politics no harm either.