Ireland has 'very limited competition in supermarket sector'
Ireland has 'very limited competition in the supermarket sector' compared to other EU states, a Labour Party TD has warned.
Labour's finance spokesperson, Ged Nash, last month brought a bill before the Dáil that would give the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) greater power to analyse and survey the groceries market.
This would also include the pricing practices of the major multiples.
According to Deputy Nash while the supermarket sector in Ireland and elsewhere is composed of different corporate models, Ireland has 'different company formations and we need to take account of that'.
He told the Dáil that 'we cannot say definitively there is not a form of price-gouging occasionally going on in the Irish supermarket sector if we do not have access to all the information to allow us to make that determination'.
'The CCPC simply does not have that information,' the Labour Party TD for Louth stated.
But he hopes that the Competition & Consumer Protection (Excessive Prices) Bill which he brought before the Dáil seeks to 'bring greater transparency to the Irish supermarket sector'.
'We hope this will lead to greater fairness for Irish consumers, who have been stiffed at the checkout,' Deputy Nash added.
Supermarket sector
He acknowledges that there is legislation empowering the CCPC that 'could be better used and applied' to regulate the supermarket sector.
But according to Deputy Nash 'there is no legislation anywhere that for example, compels supermarkets to share information that they need to share with our regulators if our regulators are to be respected and empowered'.
Speaking to TDs and ministers in the Dáil he said: 'A number of years ago I likened the trip to the supermarket to do the weekly shop to being as welcome as a visit to the dentist.
'It was and still is very difficult for people. It is becoming as expensive as a trip to the dentist also. That goes to show that the cost of accessing services, more generally, is increasing.
'Nobody is saying the state should take out a large hammer and decide to make all kinds of interventions, which never worked in the past, and pretend they will work now'.
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