Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I wish to respond to a few issues raised by various Deputies during the course of the debate. With regard to consumers and competition, recently the Tánaiste met a cross-section of retailers and had a good exchange of views with them on the preliminary findings of a Forfás study on the relative cost of doing business North and South.

There is a misunderstanding with regard to the preliminary findings of this study. The study showed that higher operating costs for labour, property, energy and other utilities in the retail sector in the Republic justify a price differential of approximately 5% with Northern Ireland for grocery items and approximately 7.5% for goods in department stores. However, as we are all aware the gap is a great deal higher than this. Something is happening because the study shows that there is a 5% extra cost to business in the Republic in the context of labour, property, energy and other utilities. We must be honest with ourselves. We will continue to pursue this to ensure retailers get value for money.

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