The State’s consumer watchdog has been urged to investigate “price gouging” by supermarkets amid the “extortionate” cost of groceries.
The cost of groceries last month was up 16.6 per cent on the same period last year, according to retail expert Kantar. The group’s data this year has consistently indicated consumers are paying in the region of an extra €1,000 a year on their shopping.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Labour finance and enterprise spokesman Ged Nash said the Government and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) must work together to “stamp out greedflation” from major supermarket chains.
“The cost of a grocery shop is extortionate right now,” he said. “The Government must now commit to working with the CCPC to stamp out greedflation once and for all.
“It is the ordinary punters across Ireland who are paying the price for that at the till in terms of higher prices for bread, high prices for milk, high prices for eggs, products that are actually produced here.
“We need a debate on this issue in the House and, in the meantime, I call on the Taoiseach to engage the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, and enable it to carry out an investigation into price gouging and competition in the retail grocery sector in this country.”
Tesco, Aldi, SuperValu and Lidl have all announced a reduction in the price of milk and butter in recent days, but Mr Nash described this as a “cynical move” taken to quell calls for investigation by the watchdog.
A spokeswoman for the CCPC said the group had received 32 “contacts” from the public in relation to increased prices in supermarkets this year up to April 14th.
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“Businesses are required to act independently in setting their prices,” she said. “The CCPC takes action against traders where we find evidence that a business or businesses have co-ordinated and not acted independently in setting their prices.”
The call for an investigation comes as new research from trade union Unite shows the “real median wage” in Ireland has fallen by €76 since the first quarter of 2021, from €976 a week to €900 a week. The data suggests workers have seen an average 4.2 per cent annual drop in real pay in the past year.
It also suggests the price of solid fuels such as coal has risen by nearly a third, and electricity by almost two-thirds. Compared with prices a year ago, gas prices are now 86 per cent higher.
Speaking before meeting shop stewards in Dublin, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the union’s members were seeing “budgets being stretched thinner each month”.
“Since the start of 2021, Irish workers have seen their real weekly wages drop by nearly €80, and while big business makes bonanza profits, ordinary families struggle to heat their homes and put food on the table,” she said. “Employers here need to be aware that we’re now organising the union so that it can fight for jobs, pay and conditions as never before.
“The cost of food is a crucial element in the cost-of-living crisis confronting workers. Grocery price inflation is now at a new high of over 13 per cent, year on year. The bulletin also shows the price of milk, cheese and eggs is up by 20 per cent, and meat, bread and cereals are up by 14 per cent.”
