Phil Hogan
Ceist:5 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he has any plans to increase the powers of the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Functions of Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade.
In addition to his wide range of existing functions it is planned that the powers of enforcement of the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade will be broadened in the short to medium term, when the following measures have been transposed into national law: new consumer credit legislation, EC Product Safety Directive, Amended EC Unit Pricing Directives, 1990 EC Package Travel Directive and EC Lot Marking Directive.
I thank the Minister most sincerely for the indication he has given that he is prepared to widen the powers of the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade in view of the importance of the European Directives that will be enacted. There is a need for the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade to have general powers to intervene in urgent cases, but he has not got these powers at present. I am thinking of the Scandinavian countries where when an urgent matter arises the Director of Consumer Affairs can act rather quickly to remove a product from the market. Here the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade has to get permission from the court to act in such cases. An example would be the removal of certain toys from the market at Christmas time or certain products which might be harmful to the consumer. The Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade cannot deal urgently with these matters because of cumbersome procedures that he must go through. Would the Minister undertake to change this position to give the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade wide-ranging powers in relation to urgent matters?
First of all, I am not certain that the Director wants more powers in some respects because he has a very wide range of activities and jurisdictions at the moment. I am not aware of any manner in which he is inhibited in dealing quickly and urgently with, for example, safety considerations. In those cases he can move expeditiously. If the Deputy has any particular enactment or regulation in mind that creates a problem he might write and let me know and I will consider it. I will certainly take the general views which he has expressed into account in any future amendment of this type of legislation or regulations.
Arising from recommendations from all over the country, the Minister last year requested the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade to commission a report into the vast increase in turnover by the ESB in terms of white goods and the consequent pressure on small retailers. That report was referred back to the Minister and his Department. May I ask the Minister if, arising from that report or from the inability of the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade to do anything about the matter, he has any further recommendations or proposals to deal with the matter as pressure is being exerted on a great number of small retailers who do not have the same credit facilities as the ESB?
There are a number of questions on today's Order Paper relating to this matter, and I will deal with the Deputy's question when we come to them.
We must await replies thereon.
The Minister has indicated that the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade has wide-ranging powers.
However, at present the Director can only make a price fixing order relating to food, and even this power is restricted. He has no power to request a manufacturer to withdraw an offending product from the market. He can ask a retailer to withdraw the product but he cannot force the manufacturer to withdraw that product even if it is imported. This is the difficulty facing him. In the light of the restrictive powers of the Director of Consumer Affairs, particularly in relation to consumer matters, I ask the Minister to undertake an urgent review to give the Director of Consumer Affairs wide-ranging general powers which would allow him to deal immediately with urgent matters, particularly around this time of year.
The Director does not have power to fix prices, as the Deputy wants him to have, for the simple reason that we do not have price controls and——
On food——
——I do not think that would be desirable. In so far as being able to force retailers, but not manufacturers, to take a product off the market, I am not sure what regulation the Deputy is referring to, but I presume it was thought sufficient to force the retailer to take the product off the market because if he takes it off the market the public cannot have access to it. However, if there is any loophole, I will certainly look at it.