Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

There are very powerful players in the market with 20% to 27% market share and it is accepted that any one of them could, if it so wished, exercise such dominance as to create an uneven playing pitch. They would create an uneven playing pitch if they decided to sell bread or milk, for example, at half price in any particular place. Senator Leyden was worried about smaller stores, perhaps in rural Ireland, but with regard to any area, whether city suburb or provincial town or village in Ireland, he would concede my point. If multiples were to take that action, we can all see that small Centra or Spar shops, or petrol forecourt shops, for example, would not be able to sustain that kind of walloping over a period. If that happened and those people were wiped out, or there were fewer of them, we would have less choice. Nobody wants to see fewer shops than now exist throughout the country, because if there is less choice there will be less competition down the road. The major players will be so dominant that they can further strengthen their hand.

I am afraid of this Bill because it favours only the giants, so to speak. I would like to think I am misreading it and getting it wrong. I would like to think the Minister is right, if he cannot accept my argument, but I thought he would feel in his heart and head that we should have an express prohibition on predatory pricing.