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Product Safety.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2004

Tuesday, 30 November 2004

Questions (258, 259, 260)

Tony Gregory

Question:

312 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps that are taken to ensure that the recall of faulty or dangerous goods is monitored to establish that all necessary steps are taken by manufacturers to have such goods removed from sale and retrieved if already sold; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30970/04]

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Tony Gregory

Question:

313 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the penalties that apply to manufacturers who supply for sale goods that are subsequently found to be faulty or dangerous; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30971/04]

View answer

Tony Gregory

Question:

314 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if a record is kept of all faulty or dangerous goods recalled by manufacturers detailing the reasons for the recall and the numbers sold and subsequently retrieved by the recall; if so, the person who keeps such record; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30972/04]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 312 to 314, inclusive, together.

Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 3 December 2001 on general product safety came into force on 15 January 2004. The European Communities (General Product Safety) Regulations 2004 — SI No. 199 of 2004 — which transposed the EU directive into Irish law was signed by the Tánaiste on 4 May 2004.

The new general product safety directive, GPSD, puts the onus on producers to place only safe products on the market. Distributors are obliged to act with due care to help to ensure compliance, in particular by not supplying products which they know or should have presumed on the basis of the information in their possession, do not comply with the applicable safety requirements of the directive. Article 5(3) of the directive requires producers and distributors, if they become aware, that a product which they have placed on the market poses a risk to the consumer that are incompatible with the general safety requirements, they should immediately inform the relevant competent authority. The Director of Consumer Affairs has been designated the relevant authority in Ireland.

The director, in line with the requirements of the general product safety directive, provides details of all notifications of withdrawals-recalls to the European Commission and to all member states, through a rapid alert information procedure called RAPEX. The European Commission updates the notifications received from all member states on a weekly basis on its website, http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_safe/prod_safe/gpsd/rapex_en.htm.

Since the new directive came into force, the director followed up on in excess of 300 notifications compared with 64 last year by conducting searches on the market place and alerting the relevant Irish distributors, wholesalers and retailers of the notifications. During the year the director issued a total of 14 RAPEX and recall notifications ranging from computers to motor cars. All initiatives relating to withdrawals-recalls were taken by the economic operators, without the need for the director to invoke her powers under the general product safety regulations.

There is no requirement under the directive to monitor the effectiveness of recalls. However, the director has drawn up a system whereby recalls will be evaluated on a six monthly basis over a two-year period. As all the recall notices were made to the office in the latter half of the year, statistical data on the progress on recalls will not be available until next year. In addition to following up on all RAPEX notifications and routine market surveillance, the office undertook two special projects on the safety of lamps under the low voltage directive and the safety of cots under the GPSD. The results of the findings of both projects are available at www.odca.ie.

The new general product safety regulations provide on summary conviction for financial penalties of up to €3,000 or three months imprisonment or both in respect of an operator found to be in breach of the legislation.

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