Competition Authority's new chairman says he has the power to do the job, writes Arthur Beesley

Bill Prasifka made a mark as an aviation regulator with his unforgiving aversion to Aer Rianta's grandiose capital plans. In his new role as chairman of the Competition Authority, he pledges to be no less forgiving of cartel-mongers and to promote consumer rights. Price-fixers, beware.

There's probably never been a better time to lead the authority, a body that had its own fair share of battles with the Government over money and its statutory powers. That's no longer the case, says Prasifka, who adds that he has adequate powers and resources for the job.

With cartel enforcement the priority, the authority has achieved a coup in recent weeks with the criminal conviction of several members of a home-heating oil cartel in Galway city and county that was orchestrated by the Connacht Oil Promotion Federation.

This "very significant milestone" was the first conviction of a cartel in Ireland and the first in Europe before a jury. "You ask what's my agenda; it's to build on that. Cartel enforcement is an absolute top priority."

While cases against some of the bigger alleged members of this cartel are outstanding, another three members pleaded guilty this week in Galway Circuit Criminal Court.

Prasifka won't talk about the authority's other investigations, but court proceedings have begun against a Cork-based Ford dealer following long-running inquiries into the affairs of the Irish Ford Dealers Association.

In addition, it emerged this week that the body was examining detailed allegations that Mayo County Council had been involved in a scheme to carve up the waste market in the county for certain private companies.

In Prasifka's own account, all of the authority aims in its current work concentrate on the consumer angle. If the deeper aspects of competition policy are sometimes seen as the lofty preserve of academic economists, he has long seen its relevance in day-to-day life.

"The competition policy that I studied in university and the one which I have advocated now for more than 20 years is a competition policy that places the interests of consumers at the absolute heart of the analysis.

"At university we studied the focus of enhancing consumer welfare and every policy is focused through that lens. And certainly, looking at the Competition Authority where it is today, you find it very much that that is the agenda."

Prasifka says the Galway case proves that competition law here is strong enough to take on cartels. All that remains is for the authority to do the job, he says. The standard of proof is very high but there's no point whingeing about it.

"We have adequate resources to make a very significant contribution," he says. With a budget this year of €5.8 million, he believes the resources issue is "not the same as it was seven years ago".

In its last annual report, issued just before Prasifka took over the chairmanship this month, the authority indicated that the Government should strengthen the law to introduce sanctions for civil breaches of competition law. Prasifka says that's not on his agenda - he sees his job as enforcing the law as it stands.

From California, Prasifka worked as an anti-trust lawyer in the US before moving to Ireland to join William Fry solicitors. He left the firm to become an ordinary member of the Competition Authority in the late 1990s, leaving to become the State's first aviation regulator.

That period was marked by a prolonged and bitter confrontation with the then Aer Rianta and its bullish chairman Noel Hanlon over airport landing fees. Airport affairs are always politicised, but some said Prasifka was impolitic in the way that he took on one of the most protected State monopolies. He insists he was simply following his legal mandate.

Not that he was sorry to leave the aviation arena. "One term as aviation regulator more than fulfilled all of my aviation ambitions," he says. Put another way, he says the role was akin to being an adviser on feminism to the Taliban in Afghanistan. If that sounds like the opposite of cosy, he received official backing for his position. "The one thing which I underestimated was the enormous amount of goodwill and support that's out there for someone who's basically doing his job."

Of the new role, he acknowledges Government support for the consumer agenda. If critics say that support came somewhat late in the day, Prasifka says he is grateful that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mícheál Martin - the man who appointed him - dismantled the dreaded Groceries Order.

"Mícheál Martin will forever have a very special place in the heart of every serious competition practitioner. He will go down in history as the man who abolished the Groceries Order. If he did nothing else, that in and of itself is very useful."

Prasifka takes over from John Fingleton, who left to become head of Britain's competition body. His predecessor was a staunch critic of anti-competitive practices and he says the authority will be no less serious about its advocacy under his leadership.

Still, he says the authority's "major works of independent advocacy" will need to be sharper, more focused and completed faster.

A big issue on the horizon is the question of reform of the legal professions, a topic pursued with some vigour by Fingleton. Prasifka says the authority will make definitive recommendations later this year.

Recent reform proposals from the Bar Council should be taken very seriously as they "obviously go some way towards alleviating some of the inefficiencies" in the profession, he says.

He will not go further than that. Neither will he speak of the authority's likely conclusions in respect of the Law Society and its commanding role in the solicitors' profession.

Prasifka says "one of the great benefits" of competition policy is that it is not sectoral. "The general principles go across a whole range of sectors." Busy times ahead.

Factfile

Name: Bill Prasifka

Age: 48

Professional background: He was an anti-trust lawyer in the US before coming to Ireland to join William Fry solicitors. He was an ordinary member of the Competition Authority and, later, was the first aviation regulator.

Family: Married with three children.

Interests: President of the Irish Czech and Slovak Society; and barbecuing.

Why is he in the news? He became chairman of the Competition Authority this month, charged with enforcing competition law and breaking cartels.