A BILL to amend the 1991 Competition Act was described as "bad for the customer, bad for the economy and bad for our legal system" during debate on the second stage.
Mr Feargal Quinn (Ind) said the Competition (Amendment) Bill 1994 was "fatally flawed" and suggested the Minister should throw it out completely and start again from scratch.
The central thrust of the Bill, he added, was to criminalise certain practices.
"At a stroke, this Bill would extend greatly the liability of company directors and executives, who would be presumed to be personally guilty, and personally liable, irrespective of whether or not they even knew about a practice that their company was convicted of," he said.