Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

With respect, of course we welcome sustainable measures that will cut costs for families and households. However, let us be clear. The Government's recent budget represented a drop in the ocean at best for families that are hard pressed and cannot make ends meet. It is not just the Labour Party; it is people around the country who are dismayed at the vast cost of the VAT cut that the Government chose to implement for hospitality and hairdressers at the expense of doing other things like indexing tax rates.

Let us return to the constructive solutions we in Labour are proposing. The Agri-Food Regulator is the regulator. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, has said it is the appropriate public body to investigate extortionate grocery prices. My colleague, Deputy Nash, asked the Minister for agriculture when he would instruct the regulator to launch an investigation. That was nearly two months ago. Enabling the authority to crack down on high prices would take nothing more than a statutory instrument from the Minister, but nothing has happened. Those are the kinds of constructive steps that the Government could be taking now to show households that are struggling that it is going to offer them something and is seeking to crackdown on rising grocery prices and tackling corporate greed. That is simply what we are looking for the Government to do.

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