Consumer rights - Government failing to help consumers

THE importance which the Irish Government places on consumer rights can be very simply measured by its representation at a recent conference in Brussels dealing with those same rights.

Not one delegate attended from the Government or the various consumer bodies within our civil service, yet about 85% of the country’s consumer legislation emanates not from the Dáil but from the EU.

Even there — in spite of the preponderance of big business influence — budgetary cutbacks in the area of consumer rights are looming, which means the odds will be more stacked against consumers.