12-month delay for Consumer Agency
This means that the new agency will not have its extensive new powers to issue-on-the-spot fines and close down businesses that breach consumer laws until Autumn 2006.
The legislation to put the interim board of the National Consumer Agency on a statutory basis will have to clear all five stages of the Houses of the Oireachtas before it gets these new powers, the Department spokeswoman said.
"The approval for the draft heads of the new Bill have now been secured it is not possible to say exactly how long it will take to go through the Oireachtas, but it could be a year," she said.
This prompted the Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) to call on Minister Martin to do everything possible to fast-track this vital piece of legislation.
"Consumers concerns about escalating prices have become the number one issue on the doorsteps and Mr Martin should ensure this legislation is fast-tracked as quick as possible to deliver this new Agency," CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell said.
However, Mr Martin's spokeswoman said this may not be possible because the advice the minister has received suggests that some of the powers contained in the new Bill cannot be rushed through the Oireachtas.
And when the minister announced the new agency's interim board he admitted that the legislation to formally establish it could not be produced overnight.
Initial work to be carried out by the new agency's interim board, chaired by Ann Fitzgerald, will look at the area of consumer awareness, advocacy and education. And one of the first tasks Mr Martin gave the interim board was to prepare a submission for him on the consumer's view of the Groceries Order the ban on below-cost selling.
The interim board has since recommended that the below-cost selling ban be lifted and Mr Martin is due to make a decision on it shortly.
