Shane Ross (Independent)

The Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs found fault with many of the banks. Ms Carmel Foley is a wonderful woman who did a great job but when she found the banks had broken the law, she could do nothing about it. Those whom she found guilty of committing offences could not be prosecuted by her in the courts.

The Government could not put up with this any longer so it set up another quango. It is to be commended that there is at least an effort to include some representatives of consumers' bodies on the board of the new agency. It is unusual for the Government to take such an approach. When the Pensions Board was established, only one representative of pensioners was included. The Government normally includes Senator O'Toole's friends in the trade union movement, IBEC and elsewhere on such bodies. In this instance, it is at least the case that consumer representatives will be included.

However, they will not be able to do anything. The establishment of this agency is merely a more elaborate umbrella or smokescreen to give the impression that the Government will protect and promote the interests of consumers. The Government knows well that direct interference is dangerous and is something it cannot face. We need only consider that the abuses which go on in the business and financial arenas and elsewhere have not been tackled. What will this body do about the cartels that exist?

It is instructive to consider what has happened to another body whose effectiveness is becoming more questionable every day. One might have imagined the Competition Authority would be able to tackle the quasi-monopoly of CRH, the cartel of the banks, the extraordinary similarity in the prices of fund managers and the stockbrokers who charge almost uniform commissions. Nothing has happened. These areas of the so-called market have been neglected and allowed to run the same old price-fixing system as was always in place.

What are these Government agencies doing? They give an impression to the public that they are curtailing the worst excesses of business. I contend, however, that the worst excesses of the business world are flourishing unchecked by Government agencies and Government measures. Nor will they be checked or hindered in any way by an agency of the type now proposed. We have ombudsmen galore, such as those overseeing the insurance industry and the credit institutions. They make not even a dent on behalf of the consumer because big business still dominates. These types of fig leaf measures will do nothing except give an impression that some action is being taken.

I would like to see this particular agency immediately set about tackling specific problems rather than general awareness. It should not be a case of distributing information to the public about consumer issues. That will not work but will merely take the responsibility from the agency which can claim it put all this information into the public arena. This does not guarantee that anybody is listening. The agency should come out and say, for example, that auctioneers' guide prices are unacceptable and the Government should respond to this immediately. No agency ever seems to do that.

The State agencies seem to publish aspirational, indicational ambitions on behalf of the consumer but achieve virtually nothing in the end. I cannot understand, for instance, what has happened to the commission on auctioneering which was set up some time ago thanks to efforts by Senator O'Toole and other Members of this House. This commission was set up to curb the worst excesses of auctioneers, estate agents and other property interests. It was due to issue a report by the end of June but that report will be late because the commission members are waffling on about particular problems which they cannot resolve among themselves.

That commission consists of three auctioneers and only one consumer representative and serves only to give the impression that it was set up to represent the interests of consumers. It will come out with some type of flimsy report which the Government will examine but probably ignore.