PUBLIC HEARINGS should be held to give consumers a proper say when regulators meet to decide on gas and electricity price increases, Fine Gael will propose in a policy document to be published in the New Year.
The party is also proposing that consumers be given formal representation in the social partnership process, something that has been denied them up to now.
Other proposals in the document include the generic substitution of prescription drugs to keep down health costs, the establishment of a single-transport regulator and an increase in the threshold for cases accepted by the Small Claims Court.
Just seven out of 31 recommendations made by a top-level advisory group on consumers' rights almost four years ago have been implemented, according to the party's enterprise and employment spokesman Leo Varadkar.
Mr Varadkar, basing his information on Dáil replies to his questions from Government Ministers, said 18 of the recommendations made by the Consumer Strategy Group (CSG) had not been implemented and six were partially implemented or in train.
While in some cases he accepted that there might be good reasons for not implementing recommendations - such as in relation to pubs and alcohol - in others this was not the case.
"At present there is no requirement for Government bodies to explain why they have not responded to the recommendations.
''This enables Government and its agencies to ignore such recommendations with ease and to succumb to vested interests without accountability."
Mr Varadkar said the Fine Gael paper on consumer affairs and value for money would centre on the fact that so little of the 2005 CSG report had been implemented.
Minister for Health Mary Harney told Mr Varadkar in a Dáil reply that there were "logistical difficulties" in displaying prices for branded and generic drugs in pharmacies at the point of purchase, one of the recommendations of the CSG report.
The situation was further complicated by differences in retail prices under the various drug schemes, she added, but options could be considered after a review of pharmacists' pay was completed.
On another recommendation, that pharmacists be allowed to substitute generic drugs for branded products, Ms Harney replied that "the particular nature of the Irish pharmaceutical market does not lend itself to extended generic substitution".
