Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Inasmuch as entertainment is concerned, I often thought that the guys opposite should go on stage because they would attract full houses every night and the audience would fall out of their seats with laughter because every time they heard from the Government, they would say to themselves, "Well, the consumer was a victim of the Red Cow roundabout and the Luas." Consumers will be victims evermore of the port tunnel because, although tunnels were built throughout the world 150 years ago, Fianna Fáil could not even build a simple one and, when it was built, we discovered it was too small. Still they think they would not draw a crowd on the stage but I can assure them they would get full houses every night. There would be no need for comedians because they would provide all of the comedy. Incidentally, these are only minor details. I could give a long list of other areas where the unfortunate consumer has been fleeced. When the time came — we are getting nearer to an election, no doubt about it — the Government rose to the occasion. It had a good look at what could be done and decided that while the poor consumer had been hammered sufficiently in the past three or four years, there was no harm in having another go. It sent a smoke signal and there was a fudge but it hammered the consumer again.

I have referred already to the changing face of shopping. On a related issue, we have a reasonably large market, with a relatively good turnover and it should not be the case that competition is between suppliers as opposed to retailers. Retailers are concerned with market share. Retailers will always assert that their main concern is service to the consumer, but in actual fact it is market share. The essential presumption, articulated in the context of the discussion of the groceries order, is that the majority of supplies to the various trades come from indigenous suppliers. That is the way it should be but that is changing. If one looks carefully at the origin of goods, one will find vague references to the European Union or labels stating that the goods were processed or packed in Ireland. These are various ways of misleading the unfortunate consumer, who might unwittingly assume a product originated here, generated jobs here and was part and parcel of our economy when in it might only have been packed here.

With regard to what will happen from now on, it would serve the Minister well to keep a close eye on prices in all of the retail outlets, given that the purpose of the exercise was to produce cheaper food for the consumer. The consumer expects to receive a boost in the form of cheaper food. Let us see how it works and how it has worked, for instance, since last November, with the abolition of the groceries order. How beneficial has it been to the consumer? The answer is zilch, it has made no difference at all, but it could have a serious impact on market share from this day forward. Will the Minister indicate to what degree his Department can monitor the fluctuations and trends in the trade, particularly with regard to market share? To what extent will the inspectors be able to monitor the demand for "hello" money? There is more than one way of getting around that provision, which I am quite sure the Minister of State knows about.

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