Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. Fianna Fáil welcomes the Bill. However, we cannot support it because it does not go far enough. Many aspects of the Bill, including changes to fines and penalties, are more about generating headlines than protecting consumers or improving competition. A comprehensive consumer and competition Bill is needed, as previously promised by the Minister.

The Bill provides for new and additional sanctions and penalties for breaches of competition law in Ireland. The IMF and EU programme for July 2011 contains the following commitment: "Government will introduce legislation to strengthen competition law enforcement in Ireland by ensuring the availability of effective sanctions for infringements of Irish competition law." Articles 101 and 102 of the treaty on the functioning of the EU, as well as ensuring the effective functioning of the Competition Authority, which will be merged with the National Consumer Agency, would address this.

However, Ms Noreen Mackey, a legal adviser to the Competition Authority, states: "It is crucial that this agency is properly equipped with powers that enable it to be both effective and efficient in carrying out its statutory mandate." However, the reality is that this Bill does little to address the requirements of the memorandum of understanding of the EU and IMF and Ms Mackey's concerns. The key problem in competition law enforcement in Ireland lies not in the maximum possible level of penalties, but in the low likelihood of detection and punishment, something the Bill does not address. It is the same old story. We have a lot of regulation but are not good with enforcement.

There are no provisions in the Bill for civil fines. The Competition Authority has no remedy available to it, other than declaratory and injunctive reliefs, and there is no provision in the 2002 Act for civil fines and penalties for breach of competition law. The advantage of the civil route is that the burden of proof is lower than that required in criminal law. The problem of having juries in criminal trials understand the complexities and nuances of competition law are removed. However, the Bill has no provision for civil fines or pecuniary penalties. The amendments will have little or no meaningful effect on strengthening enforcement. The one area the Competition Authority has specifically identified as being seriously lacking has not been addressed in the Bill.

The Minister referred to the Fine Gael manifesto in his speech. It refers to a new consumer and competition commission and states: "To save taxpayers money and to strengthen and streamline resources, Fine Gael will merge the Competition Authority, the National Consumer Agency, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the Commission for Communications Regulation and the Commission for Energy Regulation into a single, more powerful, competition, consumer and utilities commission."

The Minister seems to be intent on doing that. We want to know why today's Bill has been published separately to a comprehensive consumer and competition Bill. Why does the Government believe a penalty of €5 million rather than €4 million will have an impact on hard-core offences? Why is the prison term being increased? It serves no practical purpose and is more window dressing.

In all cases to date, not one person convicted of an offence under the relevant subsection of the 2002 Act has seen the inside of a prison cell. Any sentences that have been imposed have been suspended and none lasted more than 12 months. It is unlikely that the amendment introducing a ten year sentence would have any teeth in strengthening competition law enforcement in any real or meaningful way. The Competition Authority stated on a number of occasions it will not bring criminal prosecutions for non-hardcore offences. Any increases in penalties introduced by the amendment are effectively meaningless because no proceedings will ever be brought.

As I said, the Bill makes no provision for civil fines due to constitutional considerations. Will the Government hold a referendum to amend this, as Fine Gail promised in its manifesto? The Competition Authority is concerned about this. Will the Government allow authorised officers of the Competition Authority to be present at and participate in the questioning of suspects detained by the gardaí in regard to alleged competition offences as requested by Ms Mackey?

People want to see people pay the price for breaking the law, such as being put in jail. Let us get our act together on enforcing the regulations. The previous Government was not great at enforcing the regulations either so I am not picking on the Minister. We are very bad in comparison with Germany. I do not want to go into the cases where companies have had to pay large fines. Ireland is very poor at it and we need to improve and get our act together on this aspect of our competitiveness.