Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the cost of living and the high grocery prices that people are facing, we are seeing evidence now that inflation is slowing down. It peaked at around 10%, is now around 6% and we expect it to fall to 5% by the end of the year. While inflation slowing down is not the same as prices coming down, there is some evidence that some prices are coming down. Certainly the price of petrol and diesel peaked quite some time ago. We are now seeing the price of milk and butter coming down, given the announcement today by one of the supermarkets.

When it comes to the CCPC, I wrote to it in November in my capacity then as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It has the powers to investigate price signalling and cartel behaviour. It has the resources to do that. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, are following up on that. I specifically asked the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, to bring forward the next meeting of the retail forum in order that we can engage further with retailers. He will take action on that in the next couple of days. I want to be clear about this. Retailers and other businesses increased prices when input prices went up. That is understandable. If input prices are coming down, then they now need to reduce the prices that they charge consumers. I am clear about that. We are going to be monitoring it.

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