Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 December 2001 on General Product Safety, transposed into Irish law by S.I. No. 199 of 2004, places the onus on all economic operators – manufacturers, distributors, importers – to ensure that only safe products are placed on the market. If economic operators become aware that products on the market present a potential hazard they must take appropriate measures, up to and including recall of the items, to ensure that the risk is removed. Any action taken by an operator must be notified to the relevant Market Surveillance Authority: in Ireland this is the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), which is statutorily independent in the carrying out of its functions.
Where the CCPC finds unsafe products on the Irish market, it will act to ensure economic operators remove the product from the market until it is in compliance with the legislation. The CCPC is part of an EU wide network (known as Safety Gate) that allows for the rapid exchange of information between national market surveillance authorities on dangerous products found on the EU market.
Section 9 (5) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 provides that the CCPC is independent in the performance of its functions, including carrying out investigations of unsafe products. As investigations and enforcement matters generally are part of the day-to-day operational work of the CCPC, I, as the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation have no direct function in the matter.
Should the Deputy have any information in relation to unsafe products on the Irish market, she should make contact with the CCPC directly to provide any relevant information on these matters.
