Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department has monitored the impact of prices since the removal of the Groceries Order in March 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2571/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Following the enactment of the Competition (Amendment) Act 2006 which revoked the Restrictive Practices (Groceries) Order 1987, I asked the Competition Authority to review and monitor developments in the grocery sector in light of the new regulatory environment. Since the removal of the Order, the Competition Authority has received no complaints of anti-competitive behaviour in the sector, nor has it seen any evidence of such behaviour.

The Authority's Grocery Monitor Project in now place. In April 2007 one year's worth of post Groceries Order data will be available for analysis. Later in 2007 the Authority intends to publish an analysis of developments in the sector focusing on pricing trends, market structures and barriers to entry.

During the debate that surrounded the removal of the Order I predicted that increased competition in the market would lead to prices being cheaper than they would be if the Order remained in place. CSO figures are consistent with this view, particularly when grocery price inflation is compared with overall inflation.

The CSO has recently published the Consumer Price Index for December 2006. The figures show that the prices of products previously covered by the Groceries Order fell by 1.6% in the nine-month period since the Groceries Order was abolished (April to December). During the same nine-month period, prices of products not covered by the Groceries Order rose by 2.3%.

The overall impact on all grocery prices (Groceries Order and Non Groceries Order items) is a decrease of 0.6% in the nine-month period from April to December 2006.