THE BSE scare was a watershed crisis for the food industry, the Director of Consumer Affairs, Mr William Fagan, said yesterday. Restoring consumer confidence involved an acceptance by producers that consumers will not buy a product in which they do not have full trust, said Mr Fagan.
Writing in the annual report of his office for 1995 and 1996, Mr Fagan said it has only recently dawned on meat producers and processors that consumers need complete faith in the products they buy. The resolution of the problem requires more than lip service, he added.
"Consumer confidence will only be restored if consumers play a part in ensuring that the products they eat are produced by means which ensure their health and safety," Mr Fagan said.
The deregulation of utilities such as electricity and telephone companies throughout the EU is another important issue for consumers. Paradoxically, Mr Fagan said, deregulation will bring about the need for a form of regulation so utilities are not left entirely to market forces.
Mr Fagan drew attention to a problem his office has had with airlines operating in Ireland. He acknowledged that airlines will sometimes have to cancel or delay flights for reasons outside their control. However, Mr Fagan said, sometimes the cancellation is due to an airline mistake, but it still claims the "circumstances outside our control" in its contract of sale with the customer.
"I regard such a term as unfair in such circumstances and have written to all the airlines operating in Ireland about these and other potentially unfair terms."
The office received more than 40,500 complaints in the two years under review, of which about 2,400 received detailed investigation. The most common complaint concerned breaches in price displays in premises like bars and petrol stations. The report lists 52 traders who were prosecuted and convicted in 1996 for breach of the Retail Prices (Petrol) Display Order 1986.