Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Would Mr. Godfrey agree that if companies buy in bulk or buy for a set price for a period of time, an increase in prices should not have an effect on those companies? When there is an increase in the price of crude oil, the price at the petrol pumps goes up straight away but when there is a decrease it takes ages for the price to fall. Companies that are trying to run their business well would try to have a set price to give them certainty.

However, that should not impact the price at the pump immediately in the way we have seen over recent weeks. To go back to the questions I asked in the previous round, when I was talking about people making complaints about pricing, Mr. Godfrey said that if someone makes such a complaint, the CCPC does not look at the actual price but at whether businesses are colluding with others in respect of pricing. How many complaints does the CCPC get on that specific issue per year? How many people ring up each year to make a complaint about a lack of competitive pricing or people putting up their prices at the same time?