The new agri-food regulator should have the “powers to investigate anti-competitive practices in the agri-food supply chain” according to Sinn Féin.
The party also believes the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) should investigate “possible price gouging in the retail food and grocery sector”.
Sinn Féin will bring a private members’ motion to the Dáil for debate next week (Tuesday, May 9) on Food Costs and Rising Grocery Bills.
The party is calling on the government to “do all in its power to ensure savings made by supermarkets and large food retailers in respect of falling input costs are passed onto consumers through lower grocery prices”.
It will also highlight during the motion that it believes “unsustainably high grocery and food bills” are putting workers and families under significant financial pressure.
Agri-food regulator
A day after the Sinn Féin motion the Dáil will also vote next week on the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022.
The bill aims to establish the legal framework to create Ireland’s first agri-food regulator.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has promised that the regulator will be “an office with real teeth that will be a strong advocate for farmers, fishers and all producers”.
The new legislation could see fines of up to €10 million or 10% of aggregate turnover being imposed on organisations that are “non compliant”.
But some TDs have questioned if the agri-food regulator will have sufficient powers.
Clare TD Michael McNamara has warned that the only powers the regulator will have “is to collect, analyse and regularly publish reports on price and market data relating to the agricultural and food supply chain”.
Meanwhile according to media reports the Minister of State for Employment Affairs and Retail Business, Neale Richmond, has indicated that the government will hold a meeting of the Retail Forum also next week.
The forum includes many of the country’s major retailers including representatives from Tesco Ireland, Musgraves and IBEC’s Retail Ireland.
According to Minister Richmond one of the key issues for discussion will be current grocery prices in Ireland and why prices have not fallen.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Louise O’Reilly said that “inflation in Irish supermarkets is at the highest level ever recorded by retail analysts Kantar across the past 12 months, with the 12-week period to April 16 alone showing the rate of food inflation at 16.6%.”
“The escalating costs now facing households across the state is completely unsustainable and something has to give. That requires government intervention.
“But we have seen no sense of the urgency required by government to deal with any of these issues, Deputy O’Reilly added.