As the House is well aware, this Bill will make it a criminal offence to sell goods below cost. There is a particular problem at this time of year in that a lot of companies in the retail trade, small and large, have bought in stock for Christmas. They have to do that not knowing how much of the goods they will sell and these goods are not much use to them after Christmas. Even if they are not perishable goods the idea, for example, of retaining a large stock of unsold Christmas cards until next Christmas and, in the meanwhile, paying the interest on the money borrowed to buy them and a lot of other similar goods, is not practical. To avoid that, what people did in the past if they had stock that they wanted to get rid of and could not keep for the following 12 months, was to sell them off below cost to get rid of them before they were no longer relevant for a further 12 months.
The Minister acknowledges this problem in the order and says that seasonal goods are exempt, but seasonal goods are so narrowly defined as to exclude virtually all the actual seasonal goods. The only seasonal goods that it will not be an offence to sell off below cost are Christmas cakes, Easter eggs and Hallowe'en bracks. Excluded are any other form of confectionery which is seasonal, for instance, Christmas puddings which are not included as Christmas cakes, I presume, or Easter chocolate goods which are not in the form of eggs and/or all the other mass of non-food seasonal stock which could represent at this time of year up to two-thirds of the stock of some shops—in fact, a great part of the stock of some shops at present could be seasonal. The overwhelming majority of those goods cannot now be sold below cost before Christmas.
If this order comes into effect before Christmas it will cause a particular problem for people who might have stocked up in anticipation of selling off at below cost if they were to find between the time of purchase and the time of sale or otherwise that the Minister had introduced a new change in the rules in regard to how they can dispose of these goods below cost. We have the problem of principle that the definition is too narrow and also the transitional problem of this year in that the rules will be different from the time the goods were bought to the time that they would normally be sold if this order comes into effect before Christmas. That is my first problem on Committee Stage.
The Minister gave the explanation on the last occasion that he felt that if seasonal goods were too widely defined that could lead to a loophole in the legislation through which a coach and four could be driven. Perhaps that is so, but it is possible to adopt the process which the Minister is doing, by naming goods but having a considerably larger list than just three items. If that is done, there is not the possibility of the abuse feared by the Minister. If he goes for an abstract definition of seasonal goods relating to stocking levels, for example, at different times of the year, then clearly there are possibilities for clever lawyers to prove that almost everything is seasonal. If that is the point which the Minister is going to make I can concede it to him in advance, but it is possible by simply using the Minister's own method but with a longer and more comprehensive list of genuine seasonal goods to avoid the difficulty about which we are talking here.
I tried to introduce a new definition of seasonal goods in the form of an amendment to the Bill and the Ceann Comhairle ruled it out of order. I take it that if the Minister wanted to introduce an amendment to draw up a slightly larger definition of seasonal goods and to include words such as "Notwithstanding anything that is contained in this order, seasonal goods shall be interpreted for the purposes of this Act as including" and then give a longer list than the three given here, the Ceann Comhairle would find it possible to rule such an amendment in order. I hope he would, anyway. I am not asking him to give me an interpretation now. I would ask the Minister to look at this matter because it will cause a number of problems for retailers and it is important if we are to have this legislation, that it be workable and fair.