Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney will meet with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to discuss the retail sector “very shortly”, the Dáil has heard.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said Mr Coveney was considering “a suite of measures” to help with the rising cost of groceries, including “more transparency” around the profits of retailers.
Ms Humphreys was responding to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald during Leaders’ Questions on Tuesday, who said workers and families were struggling to keep up with sharp increases in grocery costs and households were being “fleeced day in and day out”.
Ms McDonald said a meeting between the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Neale Richmond and retailers last week was “talked up by Government, but appears to have amounted to nothing”.
“Government tried to paint up the meeting as a big success, but the reality is now clear and the upshot of it is that nothing has changed for consumers who continue to face these crippling costs,” she said.
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“It was nothing more really than a cosy chat between Government and the retailers for the sake of optics, yet another PR exercise to give the impression that Government is doing something on exorbitant food prices when the truth is Government is doing nothing at all.”
The Dublin Central TD also said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had said in a television interview last week there was evidence of profiteering by food retailers and asked what was the Government’s plan to tackle it.
In response, Ms Humphreys said the Government could not “set prices” but acknowledged the cost of the weekly shop had gone up.
She said the Government had not sat on their hands as portrayed by the Sinn Féin leader and had provided “billions of euros” in supports last year and this year to help people.
Ms Humphreys added there could not be “profiteering on the back of hard-pressed shoppers”. She said “nothing is off the table” and that Mr Coveney would meet the CCPC either next week or the week after to discuss the retail sector.
