Results 14,441-14,460 of 17,092 for speaker:Peadar Tóibín

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: The Minister will be aware of numerous examples of businesses which form one company to engage in one activity and another company to engage in a second activity. The use of separate companies enables them to circumvent employment law and constructively dismiss members of staff. I have no doubt this practice will take place in this context if it results in a competitive advantage for the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: The purpose of Committee Stage scrutiny of legislation is to enable issues that fell through the cracks during the earlier process of consultation and investigation to be brought up. We are all paid to do our job of bringing these issues to the fore. I know how long it takes for the legislative wheels to turn at Government level. It takes longer from the Opposition's perspective because we...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: No.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: Our perspective is that it would widen the number of intermediate suppliers in the supply chain.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: How many firms will be captured by the Bill as it is drafted? How many would be captured - in real terms or in proportional terms - by the Bill if it were amended in the way we seek? I expect the Department would have proportional figures in mind when drafting such measurements.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: At this stage I wish to signal that I will raise this issue on Report Stage. Why is the Minister limiting this to groceries? Let us consider what happens in the newsagent, the grocery shop or the convenience store. There are quite a number of other products such as phone credit, stamps and newspapers, as well as services such as bill payment, which are part of normal commerce. The abuse...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I can take it, then, that the Minister is not opposed, after proper consultation with market sectors and proper investigation by his own Department, to the inclusion of other sectors in the Bill in the future.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I move amendment No. 45: In page 79, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following:“(b) garden plants,”.I tabled this amendment not just because my mother loves garden plants. It is a significant section of the grocery trade and affects a great many businesses. It is anomalous that it has been left out. I ask the Minister to include it.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I appreciate the Minister's quandary. The Opposition will always clip the ear of a government that does engage in proper consultation. As there is no doubt of that, we cannot give out to the Minister for not seeking consultation. The key point is that the term "a grocery store" does not meet the current market realities. In the current market, grocery stores, and shops in general, have...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: The problem I have is that we are dealing with legislation that deals with competition but this section hangs on the fact that there must be competition within the media market but we put no real yardstick or threshold on that. That is a mistake because any Minister or Oireachtas committee can be put under pressure from those same media interests. We have seen media groups exert extreme...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I move amendment No. 44: In page 73, line 30, after “internet” to insert “and issue a press statement outlining”.This is a very simple amendment which aims to increase the stakeholder consultation and engagement when the draft guidelines are published by the Minister. It is simply an attempt to widen the level of engagement.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I move amendment No. 31: In page 53, line 30, to delete “prevalent” and substitute “present”.Before I get to the specific amendment, I mention that we are now on the media section. There seems to be no yardstick or threshold contained in the legislation as to what is the maximum cross-media ownership limit. It seems to me it is an arbitrary decision by the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I move amendment No. 13: In page 26, to delete lines 5 to 21 and substitute the following:"Comptroller and Auditor General, give evidence to that Committee.".The section verifies the accountability of the chairperson to the Committee of Public Accounts. There is a feeling at the moment that the Government is secretly uneasy with it and the role that it is undertaking. I thought it was...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I move amendment No. 5: In page 9, line 28, after "Act" to insert "no later than 3 months following enactment of this legislation".The Minister's last words regarding amendment No. 4 were "legal certainty". By not having a date for the establishment of the legislation, it creates legal uncertainty. The purpose of the amendment is to create legal certainty. As the Minister stated, the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: I move amendment No. 10: In page 18, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:"(9) Vacancies of the Commission membership will be filled within 3 months.".The Government has a poor record on filling vacant positions. Over Christmas, there unfolded an issue with the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, not having positions filled thereby reducing its ability to do its job and...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: Why two years and not seven years?

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: This is not just related to the State and there are examples of monopolies or oligopolies which exert unfair influence in their negotiations with small multiple organisations. If the Minister is worried that some price fixing or a cartel could emerge, he could within the legislation propose that if the groups came together they could only represent a portion of the sector. Alternatively,...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: The Minister is making a point about trying to stop groups colluding and we are making the same one. We are trying to stop groups colluding. Newspapers are delivered by two wholesalers and because of their market dominance, they have a very powerful influence over the terms, conditions and price in the engagement with the plethora of newsagents around the country. As a result of the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: It is not being enforced, which is a key issue.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (15 May 2014)

Peadar Tóibín: Due to a lack of funding, the Competition Authority is in a very difficult position and simply focuses on business to consumer type practices. It does not really have the function to deal with business-to-business type practices. I have been using the example of newsagents, which were forced to bring a High Court injunction into their interactions with one of their suppliers at a cost of...