Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 7 Dec 1993

Vol. 436 No. 7

Written Answers. - UK Company Operations.

Nora Owen

Ceist:

121 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Justice if she will give details of the information, if any, she has regarding a company (details supplied) in the UK who seem to have disappeared, despite collecting thousands of pounds from Irish people for furniture, through sales in hotels throughout this country, and especially at a hotel (details supplied) in Dublin 1.

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Geoghegan-Quinn)

As I stated to the House on 25 November, a UK registered company applied to the Department of Enterprise and Employment and was granted specific permits under the Occasional Trading Act, 1979 to hold sales of furniture at various locations around the country, including the hotel referred to by the Deputy, between 23 September 1993 and 10 October 1993, inclusive. It appears that the company operated on the basis that a 50 per cent deposit on goods was taken from purchasers on foot of a contactual undertaking that the purchased goods would be delivered within eight weeks from the date of order.

I am informed by my colleague the Minister for Enterprise and Employment that an alleged breach of the Occasional Trading Act, 1979 by an Irish registered company, which appears to be connected with the company already mentioned, for trading without a permit on various dates in October has been sent to the Chief State Solicitor's Office for his advice as to whether proceedings can be instituted against this company for breach of the Act.

In relation to the involvement of the Garda Síochána in this matter, the position is that, on the basis of suspicions which had been aroused, the Garda had been making certain inquiries from an early stage into the company referred to by the Deputy i.e. the UK registered company and the sales of furniture by them. My advice is that, for technical reasons, the failure by that company to deliver the furniture promised could not in itself amount to an offence unless that failure arose on or after the date on which delivery was due to be made under the contract. Whether, even at that stage, the failure to deliver amounted to an offence is a matter which would fall to be assessed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The present position is that the Garda are conducting an investigation into this matter and, as part of that investigation, they are making arrangements to interview members of the public who agreed to buy furniture from the company.