Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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893. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the estimated total cost of cartel activity to the economy, given that the EU Commission has estimated that cartel activity can cost up to 3% of GDP; and in view of the harm being caused to the economy, if she is concerned by the lack of prosecutions being taken under section 4 of the Competition Act 2002. [22675/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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By definition, it is difficult to estimate the prevalence of cartels as a lot of effort is expended by their participants in keeping them hidden. All efforts to estimate the harm of hidden cartels suffers from the problem that it is impossible to know the number of cartels in existence. Academic research tells us that the cost overcharge that results from hidden cartels is in the range of 20 to 30% and they can endure for 8 years on average before detection.

At the same time, anti-competitive agreements that are not hidden in the same manner also cause harm and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has often taken action in relation to these. These can be no less damaging to consumers and indeed to the State as it attempts to obtain value for money in the provision of services provided by different professional groups to consumers, etc.

To assist in exposing cartels, the CCPC has a Cartel Immunity Programme that it runs in conjunction with the DPP.

I understand from the CCPC that, in addition to a bid rigging cartel case that is currently before the courts, in 2016 the CCPC has already conducted 21 searches of companies suspected of anti-competitive practices. During 2015 the CCPC received 74 allegations of competition law breaches (both civil and criminal) and opened two large scale investigations in respect of anti-competitive agreements, one of which involved searches at five premises in the bagged cement sector. This is in addition to the opening of a cartel investigation into allegations of a criminal breach of competition law in the aviation sector and the closing of two additional investigations. Since 2013, the CCPC has sent one file to the DPP in respect of suspected infringements of Section 4 of the Competition Act 2002. The trial is set to take place in April 2017. Ultimately, it is a matter for the Courts to determine if criminal sanctions are warranted in any specific case.

As the Deputy is aware, the CCPC is the statutory independent body responsible for the enforcement of domestic and EU competition law in the State. Section 9 of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 provides that the CCPC is independent in the performance of its functions, including carrying out investigations of alleged breaches of the law. As investigations and enforcement matters generally are part of the day-to-day operational work of the Authority, I, as Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, have no direct function in the matter.