Call for investigation into food pricing

Opposition parties have called on the Government to launch an investigation into food prices in Ireland, following a report that found prices were rising at a faster rate here than in other European countries.

The Eurostat bulletin indicated that food prices in Ireland have risen by more than twice the rate of inflation in the past year, at 8.4 per cent.

Labour Party spokesman on Consumer Affairs, Senator Brendan Ryan, said the Government should ask the National Consumers Agency to investigate why the rate of price rises is so high.

"The steady rise in food prices is now creating real problems for low income families, who spend a greater proportion of their weekly budget on food products, than other sectors of society. The government will now have to look seriously at how such families might be assisted, if this trend continues," he said.

Mr Ryan said international factors, while a contributor to the increases, could not be held solely responsible. "This is especially so in the case of food products imported from the sterling and dollar areas, which should have fallen significantly as a result of the increase in the value of the euro," he said.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael Enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar has urged the chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business to investigate the rising cost of food, groceries and consumer goods, with particular attention on the sterling-euro discrepancy.

"Consumer rip-offs should not be forgotten about over the summer months. A series of hearings would bring renewed focus and pressure on Government agencies and on the industry itself to explain these serious discrepancies," he said.