Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This provision was included in the Competition Act 2002 in line with standard international practice for regulating transactions of a purely financial investment nature. The rationale for the provision is essentially to lighten the regulatory burden for mergers and acquisitions which raise no competition concerns. For example, the EU merger regulation contains a similar exemption. The matter has not been raised with me previously. I am aware, however, that legal practitioners in general supported the introduction of this provision during the drafting of the 2002 Act so as to ensure a level playing field between national and EU merger control regimes.

With the exception of mergers and acquisitions involving media businesses, the Competition Act 2002 transferred responsibility for regulating mergers and acquisitions from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to the Competition Authority with effect from 1 January 2003. The authority now examines and decides upon notified transactions on the basis of competition criteria alone. The previous statute, the Mergers Act 1978, contained no such exemption. However, that Act included non-competition or common good criteria as well as a competition test.

The Competition Authority is an independent statutory body. I understand, however, that the authority generally supports a policy of following best international practice in such matters.