Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No doubt the Senator is correct that there have been instances of regulatory capture or where people might take the view that a regulator has been unduly influenced by producers. The new CCPC must be alert to this. The two bodies have had no compunction about challenging practices that might be evolving in sectors which they do not believe in the interests of consumers. The Senator's amendment is to section 19, which provides for co-operation between the commission and certain of these regulations. Under this section, there would be the capacity for exchanges of information, conducting joint analyses to reach a shared understanding of certain issues and to understand the performance of their functions. I can only see it as beneficial that the CCPC would have co-operation agreements with some of the bodies such as the Financial Regulator or ComReg. Those co-operation agreements will result in better understanding, more sharing of information and analysis, and more influence for the consumer view within the regulator, and this would be beneficial.

It is unclear what the Senator's provision would do. Already, the Competition Authority has ample powers both of investigation into specific sectors and of making recommendations to Ministers in respect of instances where it believes regulatory capture is occurring. Where a regulator scrutinises a sector as a whole, there will be a series of policy objectives in the sector which may not be restricted to concerns about competition and consumers. The Senator can well conceive of considerations, such as safety issues, which might be involved in the bodies. Those regulators report to their respective Ministers and have responsibilities under their Acts according to the provisions of those Acts. The Competition Authority has ample powers to challenge what it believes are bad practices in a marketplace and the development of these co-operative agreements will serve only to improve its capacity to influence.

Although the Senator's amendment is undoubtedly well intentioned, in that it would alert the commission to the possibility of regulatory capture, from a legislative point of view it does not serve any new purpose. The CCPC's predecessors have shown ample understanding of the dangers. The Senator cited instances when they have leaned against the view of another regulator, for example the taxi regulator. The legislation will give the CCPC greater powers in many instances and I hope the influence of the two predecessor bodies will grow with the merger. I see this as leveraging more benefit for consumers. The amendment does not add to the section and I will not accept it.