Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the Consumer Protection Bill. Senator Kitt mentioned an area on which I wish to focus my attention, namely, credit card charges and surcharges. Members will recollect that I proposed to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment a Private Members' Bill for consideration. It proposes to abolish credit card charges and surcharges by companies providing event tickets, airline tickets etc. All Members of the House would agree that any definition of consumer protection must provide that all consumers are treated equally, regardless of whether they live in the far end of Connemara, the centre of Galway city or the centre of Dublin. We must also ensure that to protect the consumer everything is transparent. The consumer must at all times be aware of what he or she is paying for, how much it will cost and that he or she will not suffer any additional hidden costs half way through the transaction. I am aware that the Bill deals with misleading advertising and suggestions that something costs a given sum. I refer, however to the growing practice of companies which sell services on the Internet or over the telephone that impose a surcharge for the use of a credit card.

We want to move from a cash to a plastic society in which people will use credit and debit cards. In recent months the newspapers have reported a spate of bank robberies and kidnappings. We need to reduce the amount of cash revolving in society. Cash is not necessary but if we do not protect the consumer in using an alternative to cash, we facilitate the continued growth of the cash industry. We must encourage people to use credit and debit cards to pay for goods and services and stop any practice that might act as a disincentive to that practice. When one books a ticket on the Internet from Ryanair or Aer Lingus, one pays airport taxes, security charges, surcharges and a credit card charge per ticket. That charge might be €2.50, €5.50 or €6 depending which is additional to the price of the ticket.

The advertising of 1 cent flights to America or Europe is misleading. This also creates inequity. People in rural Ireland are increasingly forced, by virtue of their location, to make bookings on the Internet. In the old days there were post offices everywhere but these are closing down, as are bank branches, and it is even becoming more difficult to do one's business in the city centres.

As more people use the Internet to buy goods and services, they are charged extortionate sums for doing business with these companies. It does not make sense. Ticketmaster is my delight but it charges a fortune for booking concert tickets. When I bought tickets recently for a concert in the Point Depot for 12 children and three adults, I paid more than €80 in credit card surcharges. It is ridiculous that I must pay more money just because I am paying the company for concert tickets. This probably should have been dealt with under the legislation to deal with the Financial Regulator. It may be a financial matter for which the Department of Finance should be responsible. Neither the legislation for the Financial Regulator nor the consumer credit legislation dealt with this issue. We now have an opportunity to deal with it.

Will the Minister of State consider where an amendment could be placed because if he is not in a position to do so, I will have to try to find an area and table an amendment or, as Senator Kitt said, we must introduce a Private Members' Bill. We as a Government should tell companies that if they want to do business here they must comply with certain rules, and that we will protect consumers who are entitled to do business with these companies without paying more money because they use their credit or debit cards on the telephone or the Internet than if they walk in off the street and pay cash. Restaurants and shops do not charge an extra 20% because one uses one's credit card. If businesses on the high street and corner shops do not do this, the likes of Ticketmaster and Ryanair and even the GAA, which is beginning to take Internet bookings, also need not do it.

When I was at a Christmas concert in the Helix in Dublin, I noticed that as and from 1 February a new booking fee would be introduced for on-line bookings. Presumably the theatre decided that if everyone else was imposing these charges, it might as well jump on the bandwagon and make that extra money. We consumers subsidise and contribute to profits for these organisations which have lower costs because the transaction takes place on the Internet, with fewer people involved, less employment, less tax going to the Government and more profits for large organisations, yet the Government condones this.

I urge the Minister of State to look at the consumer rights in this area and say that the Government will stand up to Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Ticketmaster and not allow them to profit from the public. The Government should make this illegal. It can tell these companies to make their profits another way by taking the money back from U2 or Westlife or from their shareholders to make an equitable profit rather than on the backs of consumers. We can create and protect such a society.

I doubt that I am the person to suggest where the Bill could be amended to achieve this but there are sections in Part 3 which might accommodate the amendments. We could propose a new section to deal with this on Committee Stage. We should not be frightened away by the big guys who think we should not take more money from them. This is not good enough for our society. The Government is in charge of the country and it is for us to make the regulations and rules.