Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for outlining the provisions of the Bill and its transposition into Irish law of EU legislation. The Labour Party broadly welcomes the Bill and the intention behind it to tackle anti-competitive practice, for instance, where businesses engage in price-fixing and other breaches of competition laws. Like workers, consumers must be adequately protected throughout the country. Too often, the interests of big companies are privileged over those of ordinary people.

It is important that the authorities to which power has been delegated to enforce these rules are adequately funded and given the resources to

fulfil their brief. We see these issues across various sectors, whether it be the CCPC, the Data Protection Commission, DPC, or the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. If a body has been set up to allow ordinary people to make complaints and enforce their rights, it should be given teeth to tackle the issues people bring to it. The purpose of the European Competition Network, through the directive which this Bill is transposing, is to allow national competition authorities the means to impose effective fines to ensure they have sufficient resources. It is, therefore, welcome.

The powers set out in the Bill include the ability to fine companies a maximum of €10 million or 10% of total worldwide turnover for breaches of competition law. It is vitally important that such breaches are tackled in Ireland but it is equally important that the provisions of the Bill and the intentions behind it are backed up with the reality of implementation. We must ensure that companies do not find a way to dodge or work around the legislation and its enforcement mechanisms. We must also ensure that investigating bodies such as the CCPC and ComReg use their powers actively to pursue them.

It is worth considering how pervasive these issues continue to be in Irish society, whether in the Celtic Tiger years or, more recently, with various issues involving insurance companies. I have recently been contacted by a number of people who raised what they perceive as the potential for price-fixing in the housing industry. An increasing number of homes are being advertised as "price on application" and people are also being asked to show loan approval. If people are not told the price of a house, they may want to buy before they have provided the loan approval to the estate agent or equivalent. In order to fill out the application prospective buyers are being asked to provide extensive personal and, more important in the context of this Bill, financial information. Prospective buyers are expressing serious concerns to me that once sellers' agents know the relative incomes of the prospective buyer or the amounts they have been approved to borrow, they are pitching the prices of the houses accordingly. If this is the case, it is unacceptable. I hope this Bill, by strengthening the powers of the competition authorities, will be able to tackle such issues or at least provide guidance to people on what rights they have under the legislation.

Inasmuch as the Labour Party broadly welcomes this legislation, we also hope to see the same approach taken to increasing the powers and resources of other administrative bodies such as the RTB without the need for new prompting.