Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister has mentioned world markets and of course they dictate prices. Understandably, the price of timber has fluctuated greatly in the past year and that situation is reflected in the price we will pay in any hardware shortage. Timber is dearer now than it was this time last year. If every timber or hardware store sold the same piece of timber at a price within 1% of the other, and increased the price on the exact same day as the other, then questions would have to be asked as to whether the retailers had collaborated. For several years those questions have been asked about meat factories. The great white hope is that we might have a body that will actually investigate and examine how that came about and whether there has been collaboration or illegal practices. The CCPC has clearly said that it is not in a position to do such work so will the new body have the authority to do this work?