Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Section 9 (5) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 provides that the CCPC is independent in the performance of its functions. Cartels are a serious form of anti-competitive behaviour which occur when competitors agree to fix prices, share markets, restrict output or share commercially sensitive information with each other. In Ireland, engaging in prohibited cartel activity is a criminal offence. Anti-Competitive behaviour matters are generally part of the day-to-day operational work of the CCPC and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has no direct function in this regard and does not have any involvement allocating what division the CCPC decides to allocate its staff to.

Nevertheless, as Minister of State in the Department, I can confirm that the CCPC has informed me that it currently has 12 staff in its Cartel Division with another two employees onboarding in early January 2024. The current salary expenditure for the 12 employees in Cartel Division of the CCPC is approximately €850k.

The CCPC is examining staffing requirements for each division as part of an overall organisational review for 2024. For comparison, in 2019 the CCPC had 104 staff and to date in 2023 it has 193.