Mr. John Evans:

If one is basing one's assessment on the competitiveness of a sector just on market share, Dunnes Stores, Tesco and SuperValu have approximately 70% of the market and that is a strong indicator. I suggest that the position is probably even worse than that as a result of the geographic profile of the different retailers. SuperValu is predominantly based in rural areas, although it does have stores in urban areas. As a result, there are between two and two and a half big players in the most urbanised areas and really only one big player covering the rural areas. The figure of 70% probably overstates the degree of competition.