John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Will the Tánaiste investigate the possibility of holding talks with the major retail chains to introduce a price freeze on household staples until the economy has turned around? The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, was able to do it in the 1990s with a price freeze on drink. Surely we are capable of meeting those chains and asking them to consider doing this. Following talks with governments, major supermarket chains in several EU countries have introduced price freezes. We should bring those chains in and ask them to do the same here. Otherwise we should introduce price freezes on essential goods such as bread, milk, butter and baby food.

See this speech in context