Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The Consumer Protection Act is a matter for the Minister, Deputy Coveney, but certainly when I was the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, we examined and studied the history of price controls in Ireland and, indeed, those controls in other countries, and the difficulty which arises very often when one imposes price controls through consumer orders, where one can end up with a lack of supply and with shortages. That is a risk I believe everybody wants to avoid because while one can cap the retail price as to what somebody charges in the shops, one cannot cap the price in which the shops get it from the wholesaler and they may not get the product at all. One may then end up with shortages and rationing and all of the things we would have seen in eastern Europe and other parts of the world. That is not what we want here.

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