Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I wish to echo some of his comments about the position of employees in Tesco. That company is making substantial profits in this country, probably in the region of €200 million per annum, although we do not know for certain. There is a strong case for the company to introduce a profit-sharing mechanism as an alternative to the traditional system of national wage agreements, which has now largely fallen apart.

We all understand the background to this question, in that huge numbers of people are travelling to the North to buy cheaper consumer goods there. Anything we do must recognise that. I welcome the fact that consumer prices are now starting to fall in shops across Ireland, but there must also be a degree of fair trade as well. In a free market there must be access for everyone. We cannot have a situation whereby suppliers are denied fair access to that free market. Suppliers and distributors will have to reduce their costs but most of the costs that disadvantage them are imposed by Government policies on rates and energy charges. Most of those high costs are created by Government policy. Aside from Government action to cut costs, due consideration must be given to introducing a code of conduct similar to what exists in the United Kingdom. That could ensure that, at the very least, Irish suppliers would get fair access to the market. In the meantime, we need to bring down those costs. That is the real issue.

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