Vol. 350 No. 9
asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism if he will revise and update existing legislation on casual trading in order to prevent situations arising whereby casual traders can park mobile markets adjacent to supermarkets thereby creating a situation of unfair competition; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
20.
asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism if he will review the manner in which the Casual Trading Act, 1981, has operated.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 20 together. The Casual Trading Act, 1980, empowers local authorities to designate the places of their functional areas where casual trading may be carried on and, when they have designated casual trading areas, it is an offence to engage in casual trading elsewhere. In addition to confining traders to specified places, local authorities can regulate such trading by means of by-laws, which the authorities are empowered to make, and conditions attached to casual trading permits granted by the local authorities to casual traders.
Severe penalties are provided for contravention of the Act which is enforced by the Garda and local authority officers. If the Deputies are aware of any possible breaches, they should advise the appropriate authority.
I am satisfied that the Act gives local authorities all the powers they need to determine the places where casual traders may trade having taken account of such factors as planning and competition and I do not, therefore, propose to make any revisions to the existing legislation.
Is the Minister aware that the Casual Trading Act is being used widely to decide where these people can carry on trading? Urban councils and local authorities also have power to add hefty licence fees to the permits which allow the casual traders to operate. These people virtually are being put out of business because of the substantial size of the licence fee. Was that the intention in the Act?
I did not introduce the Act although I was involved in some of the early work on it prior to 1977 when I was Minister of State. I do not think it was the intention of the Act to put these people out of business nor do I have any evidence that what the Deputy is saying is, in fact, happening. However, I will investigate the matter and have a look at the scale of fees. If there is evidence that the scale of fees is such as to effectively prohibit casual trading altogether I would be concerned about the matter and will see what I could do about it.
The remaining questions will appear on tomorrow's Order Paper.
