Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We know that the living standards of our people are being eroded. People who are at the front end of this and who are most acutely affected are those on low and modest incomes. We know that the national minimum wage did not increase sufficiently in order to allow people's living standards to at least stabilise. We required a much higher increase to the national minimum wage to protect those who work very hard and get up early in the morning but who simply do not make enough to exist. Things are simply getting worse for them.

For far too many families, the dread of the weekly trip to the checkout is now akin to the dread people experience visiting the dentist. They simply do not know what it is going to cost and cannot budget for it. The Taoiseach is right that there are two sections of the Consumer Protection Act 2007 that provide the Government with the ability to address pricing issues and introduce, for example, temporary price orders to set maximum prices. These are sections 61 and 62. If it is the case that the Government does not want to act in this regard, it could do what the Greek Government did, that is, organise a summit with supermarkets. The Government could bring all the big supermarkets together to address these issues. The Government of Greece worked with supermarkets in that country to ensure the setting of price controls in respect of 51 staples. The Government here has the power to do this. Will the Taoiseach commission the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to carry out an examination of the market to identify why prices in Ireland are so high and what action can be taken?

See this speech in context