New National Consumer Agency to be established

Call me cynical, but I don't understand why they are doing away with the ODCA (which seems to be the case) and replacing it with what seems like ODCA v2.0.

My experience to date of queries to ODCA and assorted other in-betweenies like IFSRA, the Pensions Board, etc . . . is that there are enough of them around to be able to respond to almost any query with "You need to get in touch with IFSRA/Pensions Board/ODCA/Consumer Panel/someone other than us as this is not included in our remit."

I hope they do something constructive (from my consumers perspective), but I have to say I am sceptical to start with.

On the positive side I note from the link above from Clubman that there is a proposal to have price displays for prescription drugs and allowing pharmacists to substitute generic drugs for branded prescriptions. This is progress, but only if it actually gets carried through.

z
 
I new Fianna Fail wouldn`t let us down!
They`re introducing competition in the competition bodies.
Why are they not making plans for a 3rd?
 
Zag, alsocall me cynical , to me this smells of government control and removal from any independent assessment.
Nowhere in this press release does it state that NCA CEO will remain an independent statutory officer.Maybe they will ???
Firstly, a CSG report was submitted to government, 'dissing' ("he (Michael Martin) agreed with the Group that current policy was not effectively meeting the needs of the modern consumer") the current ODCA. Then following the report they make the chairperson of the CSG the person that compiled the report, the new CEO of the new commision. It is like me coming in to your job . Delivering a report on your work and saying you are doing a crap job and you should give me the job instead !!
Like all other bodies that they(FF/PD) create, they give them too little powers and by the time that they get the powers, the horse has gone...not only left the stables, but left the field, left the country..
The person I feel sorry for is Carmel Foley. In a position with very little teeth and not much room to manoverve. She did sterling work and was always a voice for the consumer, when she was allowed. Since she was independent, they probably could not sack her easily, so they dissolved her job and renamed it and gave it to someone else.

This is my read of some of Michael Martin's comments below
"The Minister paid tribute to the contribution of successive Directors of Consumer Affairs. "It is critical that in moving towards(ODCA Previously moving to slow- another stab at the ODCA) the expanded remit (The OCDA never had the powers it required in the first place) envisaged (remit not yet decided - but put the the NCA in place first ???)for the NCA, that we build on the valuable work done over many years by - the - (he must have decide to omit "Carmel Foley and her" )Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs. Carmel Foley will bring valuable expertise to bear on the work of the Interim Board,(Interim being the important word. So it looks as though once the Interim Board is finished, Carmel fades away...)" he said."
The report is here [broken link removed]
It looks as though the report was commissioned by Forfas under the DETE .
With the creation of this body.
Here is a list of the others... [broken link removed]
 
Carmel Foley was quoted last week as saying that this NCA would be up and running in 2 years time.

So, 1 year to create the report, and 2 years to set up the NCA. 3 years to get something done about a day-2-day problem.

Though I always believe that watching out for ripoff Ireland is primarily in the hands of the (mostly inactive) consumers, it's ridiculous that it should take 3 years to address the issue.

Unless obviously they don't really want to in the first place.
 
And what agency will control the now-normal spiralling costs (our money) of creating the agency?
 
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