Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On the grocery prices issue, there has been a change of tone from Government. We want a response from the retail sector to the reality that price inflation is reducing across the economy but price inflation within the food retail sector is not. One is running at double the other. We need to understand, from a retail perspective, why that is. We want consumers protected in terms of retail prices. This is the very basics of running a household. The cost of feeding a family for the week should not be more than it needs to be in respect of the disruptions and pressures that we have seen over the past year or so. That is why the retail forum has been brought forward on the request of Government. We will have another retail forum in six weeks’ time and the Government will continue to work on this issue.

It is not all about the retail forum, by the way. We have also been engaging with the CCPC on this issue. We received advice from its officials on the approach that should or should not be taken. We will watch this issue closely. I know the kind of interventions the Deputy would like to see, which is for the State to effectively set prices. The CCPC strongly recommends against that approach. A number of other countries have looked at that and decided not to go ahead with it.