Madam, - The abolition of the restriction on below cost selling is fundamentally anti-competitive. It gives the large supermarket chains almost unlimited power. They will pressurise the food producer, the farmer, to produce ever more cheaply at the expense of the environment, of the rural social structure - as the need for scale economies drives smaller farms out of existence - and at the expense of food quality - intensification means chemicalisation, make no mistake.
These large multinational supermarkets are not philanthropic. With their size advantage and with the gloves off, they can finally squeeze local stores out of existence - the result is dead villages and towns, as over much of mainland Europe, and the same signs and logos over every street. Why should economists dictate policies that are primarily social in their impact? And, more interestingly, why do we not learn from the earlier mistakes of other countries?
There is only one conclusion I can draw and that is that the interests of big business and of big political parties are one and the same. - Yours, etc,
JERRY CROWLEY, Kilpedder, Co Wicklow.