Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I have listened to many of the speakers this morning and last Thursday, when the Minister first introduced the Bill, followed by Deputies Hogan, Howlin and others. Most of the speakers, even on the Government side, raised concerns about the Bill and the effects it will have on smaller shops. The revocation of the groceries order by the Minister, Deputy Martin, is one of the principal purposes of this Bill, with the ending of certain restrictive practices. These aspects of the Bill are welcome although the qualified ending of so-called hello money is mystifying and does not appear to be achievable. Perhaps the Minister will enlighten us as to how hello money could not but have been an object or the effect of prevention, restriction or the distortion of competition in trade in grocery goods in any part of the State. Even if hello money could be deemed benign, I doubt that the Department would send personnel to inspect such instances and make appropriate rulings. Members are well aware of the dismal failure of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to police abuses in the labour market adequately, to the extent that a book on the misery and abuse of foreign nationals here is now a best seller in Latvia.

Everybody knew the groceries order had to be changed. It has been in place for the past 18 years. However, what the Minister has done will have an effect in every county. There will be job losses. I drive through the small towns and villages in my constituency each week and one can see the effect the multinationals are having on the industry. There are few shops in the villages now. Recently, I tried to compile a database of all the shops in County Clare. I eventually compiled a list from telephone directories and old lists. I sent a letter to the shops and was astonished by how many letters were returned because most of the shops had gone out of business. It is a worrying trend.

So-called hello money aside, the underlying issues which prompted this Bill remain. These include the issues of consumer prices and rip-off Ireland. Can we be sure that prices will come down, as promised by the consumer strategy group, and will the golden era that was promised when the order was revoked come to pass? Many doubt it. There is cynicism among consumers about the ability of the Government to implement quality measures which do not impact directly on people's pockets, whether it be motorways and tolling, improving health services or taking steps to promote house price inflation which benefits Government coffers as the single biggest form of stealth tax. Meanwhile, insurance, child care and energy costs soar. It would be a welcome change if this Bill were to be a white knight for the hard-pressed consumer but I do not believe that will be the case.

The other issues that prompted debate on the groceries order are the growing power of the multiples, the growing concentration of retail outlets and the demise of the corner shop. This week in County Clare a consortium of three business people offered the GAA county board in Ennis a deal to provide a 42,000 seater stadium with an all-purpose weather pitch on a greenfield site outside the town in exchange for Cusack Park in Ennis where they propose to build a shopping centre. Huge money is available to the multinationals to secure sites in town centres. Tesco, for example, is looking at sites in Kilrush, the third largest town in County Clare. Multinationals such as Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Aldi and Lidl are already in Shannon and Ennis. Greenfield sites in town centres are extremely valuable and business people are trying to acquire them because they know the multinationals have plenty of money to spend on prime locations for their outlets.

One need only look at the Sunday newspapers to see the amount spent on advertising by the multinationals. There are pages of colour advertisements displaying the bargains on offer in their supermarkets. It obviously costs a huge sum of money to take out colour advertisements in Sunday newspapers. The same is occurring with the provincial newspapers, in which the multinationals take full page colour advertisements every week. This shows the power and impact they have on the consumer and how they can direct people to their supermarkets.

Not only is there a danger of creating a problem in local areas but we are fast approaching a situation where a car will be necessary for every shopping trip as people are forced to go to out-of-town shopping centres. I recently visited a new mall that was opened about a month ago in Limerick. The size of the mall and the number of retail outlets were such that one could shop there all day. These malls are a huge attraction to the consumer and that is the reason they can afford so much advertising. The multinationals attract the smaller franchise groups into their centres.

The same can be said for town centres. The old shops are disappearing from the streets of town centres and are being replaced with English chain stores such as Boots. That is not a good thing for the consumer. I read a report produced in Britain recently and it showed that there is greater concern there than here about the demise of the corner shop. According to a survey conducted there recently, cars were used for 62% of shopping trips last year compared with 49% in 1991. It is necessary to drive out of town to visit shopping centres and people tend to spend more money at these centres than they would at smaller outlets. The situation in Ireland is probably similar or worse but I am not aware that any such survey has been conducted here.

The other issue is the increase in the number of garage forecourt shops in recent years. They were once hailed as the great hope of the independent sector and they have consolidated themselves in this country. However, this week a worrying trend emerged. The Norwegian company Statoil has said it intends to sell its outlets in Ireland. One can draw a number of conclusions from that decision but the main one is that the company does not envisage a future for these garages.

Statoil is a state-owned company in Norway and has not been operating in this country for long. It is looking for between €200 million and €300 million for its outlets. The company obviously foresees a danger coming from the other multinationals. Tesco has gone into the business of selling petrol at cheaper rates and companies such as Statoil are anticipating fierce competition. That is a big danger for the forecourt outlets. It is also rumoured that another major concern, Texaco, is thinking of putting its outlets up for sale. These oil companies are making major decisions and they are obviously aware of what is happening in the market.

Giving a free rein to these multiples in the name of choice and competition will have the opposite effect. The Bill could be entitled the anti-competition amendment Bill. As the Fine Gael spokesperson on small business, in conjunction with Deputy Hogan, I am well aware of the choice available to people to buy locally sourced products. If the multinationals are allowed to wipe out our local shops, much of our food will be sourced from elsewhere. Look, for example, at the mushroom industry and the crisis facing mushroom farmers where there are cartels and prices are controlled. Mushrooms are a delicate product with a short shelf life. If a company rejects Irish mushrooms, it can buy cheaper mushrooms from Poland, Holland or elsewhere. It is only when bad weather in Poland or Holland affects production that the Irish consumer benefits. Consumers are at the disposal of such people and cartels when it comes to Irish products.

We could also take pork products as an example. This week many farmers came to the Dáil to protest against the nitrates directive, which is a separate issue. Such protests have to do with how we sell our produce, specifically pork products. We see a packet of rashers sold by a well known company here as an Irish product. We get the impression from the Irish name that we are buying Irish rashers, but we are not. These are pork products from South America that are packaged and produced here.

These issues will have a significant effect on the grocery business here. This week we heard that Dublin has earned the honour of being the 16th most expensive city in the world. Some believe that because our economy is successful, Dublin is as successful. It is an expensive city and a rip-off culture prevails in the manner in which consumers are treated there.

I could speak further about what is happening in the grocery business, in particular the technology some of the multinationals will introduce that will create more job losses. In supermarkets people will be able to bring their basket of groceries to the checkout where it will be scanned automatically. This will cut down on employees.

Rural shops are vulnerable. They have low profit margins and face fierce competition. We have a duty to protect these shops in the interest of our rural areas and to sustain employment in these areas. The same should be done for rural post offices which are in decline. As services close down, we will soon get to the stage where local shops will also close down. Many houses are being built in small villages and towns, but unfortunately consumers are attracted to the multinationals in out of town areas where they can do their weekly shopping. As a result, small shops are ignored.

I predict opposition to this Bill on account of its failure to protect consumers in a number of key areas. I hope that on Committee Stage the Minister and the Chairman of the Select Committee on Enterprise and Small Business will listen to the Opposition. I hope some protection will be provided for small shops. These have been great and have been there to help people. Now we are in a different world and consumers want choice. As we do not have a large population, we are being subsumed into the British, German and US markets.

I thank the Acting Chairman for the opportunity to speak on this Bill and hope the Minister will listen to the amendments that will be tabled by party spokespersons on Committee Stage.

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