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

I beg your indulgence, a Cheann Comhairle, while I welcome the students from Coláiste Muire and St. Flannan's College in Ennis, who are here in Leinster House today. They are going to do a presentation later on sustainable communities. They are accompanied by Councillor Mary Howard. Deputies Cathal Crowe and Carey also wish to welcome them. They are all very welcome to the Chamber.

As I said yesterday, the Government here is under no illusions. We acknowledge that we are experiencing a period of high inflation. People saw that in their energy bills first but, thankfully, we are seeing petrol and diesel come down. I think we will see electricity and gas come down in the coming months as well. Then, as is often the case, energy inflation feeds into the cost of food, the cost of production and the cost of doing business. As a result, families are seeing a big increase in their grocery bills and in the cost of their weekly shop. We know that and acknowledge it.

We are acting. We are increasing incomes. We did that in the budget, in the public sector pay deal and by means of the national minimum wage increase. We are reducing taxes. We reduced income tax, introduced a rent credit, and we reduced VAT and excise in a budget that Sinn Féin opposed and voted against.

Let us not forget that. It voted against the budget that reduced income taxes, introduced a rent credit and reduced VAT and excise duty. It will not put that it its social media video and does not want it reported on the news. Let us not forget that Sinn Féin voted against those things when it voted against our budget.

We are taking actions to reduce the cost of living, such as reducing the costs of childcare and public transport, again in a budget that Sinn Féin lined up to vote against. Therefore, Sinn Féin should not pretend to me that we are voting down proposals it is putting forward to help with the cost of living. We put forward proposals that actually help people and Sinn Féin voted them down. That is the fact and Deputy McDonald should admit it in her follow-up reply.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has powers under law to investigate price-fixing, price signalling and cartel-related behaviour. It does not require an instruction to investigate. We have written to it already. If Deputy McDonald has any evidence of the crimes in question, it is important that she provide it. If she has not done so, I ask her why, because she should do so. The commission has the powers already and can act on them.

The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade an Employment, Deputy Richmond, will meet representatives of the Retail Forum today. It involves the major retailers, supermarkets and their representative bodies. He will be giving them a very clear message on behalf of the Government: when their input costs went up, they increased their prices, so now that their input costs are going down, we expect them to reduce their prices.

On the question on advice from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, we have the preliminary advice. I read it this morning. It amounts is only a page and a half. I have no problem publishing it but that will be up to the commission and the Minister. The advice of the commission cautions strongly against the introduction of price controls. It points out that in Spain, for example, proposals to do so were abandoned because of the impact it would have on small retailers, particularly retailers in rural areas, which require higher margins to get by. It points to a lack of evidence in France and Greece, where controls have been introduced, indicating it has actually helped consumers. It also points to an unintended consequence in that if some prices are controlled, others that are not controlled are then put up even more. The commission very much cautions against that approach. I know Deputy McDonald has not advocated it but some of her fellow travellers in the House have.

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