Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 300: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the expenditure of the competition and policy section of her Department for each of the past five years; the number and grade of civil servants attached to that section; the number of reports commissioned by this section from external bodies; the cost of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20643/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Due to the fact that my Department changed its financial management system within the last five years, the information on expenditure requested by the Deputy is readily available only from the beginning of 2004.

Competition and Consumer Policy Section is a Unit within the Department's Commerce, Consumers and Competition Division, which is headed up by an Assistant Secretary. The total authorised staff complement of the Section is 12: 1 Principal, 4 Assistant Principals (one part-time), 3 Higher Executive Officers (HEO), 2 Executive Officers (EO) and 2 Clerical Officers.

Over the past few years, the main focus of the Section's work has been the introduction of the Competition Act 2002, the transposition of EC Council Regulation 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty, the implementation of and follow on to the 2005 Report of the Consumer Strategy Group, the abolition of the Restrictive Practices (Groceries) Order 1987 by way of the Competition (Amendment) Act 2006 and the introduction of the Consumer Protection Act 2007 which led to the establishment of the National Consumer Agency and transposed the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

The Report of the Consumer Strategy Group, referred to above, was published in 2005 and the cost was borne by Forfás. As a follow on to the work of that Group, the Department produced a Final Report of the High Level Interdepartmental Committee on the Recommendations contained in the Consumer Strategy Group and subsequently the Report on the Restrictive Practices (Groceries) Order 1987: A Review & Report of Public Consultation Process (October 2005). Both of these Reports were produced in-house with some external assistance at a cost of €10,000.

Current projects underway in the Section include a review of the Competition Act 2002, a review of the Sale of Goods legislation and participation in the review of the EU Consumer Acquis. In addition to providing the secretariat to the Advisory Group on Media Mergers which was established at the end of March, day to day work of the Section includes an oversight/support function in relation to both the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency and monitoring and contributing to competition and consumer developments at EU level.

I remain committed to ensuring that the Competition and Consumer Policy Section is adequately resourced to enable it carry out its important work of delivering a modern and effective national competition and consumer policy.