Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Again, I thank the Minister. The Minister mentioned water. We tried to get a consumer dimension into the Irish Water legislation. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, was badly advised not to accept the amendments proposed in the Seanad by Senators Cullinane and Ó Clochartaigh, me and others. Recently, Ben Dunne said that if he had a shop and 40% of the stock disappeared, he would not blame the customers. If 40% of the water is wasted, why is that visited upon the customers? The equivalent body in the UK, a specialised body from water regulation, found that if left to themselves, engineers invested approximately 40% more than is indicated because it becomes a form of welfare for engineers. We have a metering target of 100% while the UK's metering rate is approximately 40%, which means they can charge for water without spending €600 million, or whatever we are spending on meters. Left to the engineers, they will continue to do it.

There is no evidence that ComReg has yet acquired any expertise to take on the sector. The excuse was that people such as Senator Barrett would complain if the Government created a special regulator for water - and there is probably some truth in that - and therefore it was thrown in with energy.

The Competition Authority was unable to get any response from the National Transport Authority about opening 10% of bus routes. What routes were chosen and was there any indication of the economics of these routes so people would know whether to apply? It was just a matter of taking it or leaving it. It was much the same when the newly-promoted deputy leader of the Labour Party put a 91% barrier before new entrants to the taxi business by requiring them to have a wheelchair-accessible vehicle but did not put the burden on incumbents. The Competition Authority at that stage may have got a polite request to butt out, and producer bodies will keep that up.

We have lost 300,000 customers from the health insurance sector and there has been a massive increase in costs. The Minister may say some of this is to recoup the cost of hospital beds but although the State lost cases in the Supreme Court and the European court, it still implements policies to benefit its own health insurance company and not open competition. For example, it has never produced evidence that other companies refused to recruit old people or put them at any financial disadvantage.

I share the Minister's aspiration to get better representation for the consumers of energy, insurance such as health insurance and transport, including air travel. This is just not working very well, if this is meant to be a review of customer rights protection in this country. Consumers are at the back of the queue and the culture of our public services will always favour the incumbent State company and its way of doing things. It is not just an Irish syndrome but we are a pretty pronounced case, as one can see in the examples I provided. According to Dr. Vincent Power there has never been a court case by the commission to implement competition policy. A stronger line is needed in this respect.

As of yesterday, it seems the Irish taxpayer will be called upon to bail out 75,000 customers of a Maltese insurance company called Setanta. That arises because of a 2011 Act - when we all came here - which bailed out Quinn Insurance for over €700 million. Even if people insure with companies outside the country, the Irish consumer seems to bear the burden. Another aspect of a degree of capture in an industry is moral hazard, with inefficient companies repeatedly bailed out at the expense of consumers who had the wit to choose an efficient producer or those which had the wit not to engage in the inefficient practices that led to the other bankruptcies. If we go down the road that we will now bail out inefficient foreign producers of financial services, the estimate is the bill will rise from the infamous €64 billion for bailing out Irish banks to €117 billion. That is the amount that Rabobank, the Belgian banks and the UK banks lost in this country.

The bankers get together and the producers get together but the consumers get big bills. I want to see a new agency getting in far more tackles than we have seen until now and not opting out so easily when these issues arise. A large number of elements dealt with in the section are examples of how the consumer has not been well served. In Parliament we find it very difficult to get any redress, so we hope there is an ally in both the Minister and the new competition and consumer protection agency. Regulatory capture is a factor with which we have not really displayed much energy. Our performance would be more akin to the Brazil soccer team than that of Germany in tackling some of these problems. I hope the new body will put more energy into the issue, as the results have not been going our way heretofore.