Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the recent revelations about major price discrepancies in a number of clothing chains located in Ireland and the UK. It has been shown that retailers like H&M, Topshop, Topman, Monsoon, Warehouse, Zara and River Island charge up to 60% more in their Irish outlets than in their UK outlets. This is bordering on the criminal. It seems that the Irish consumer is getting a raw deal. Every euro that is wrongly added to the price in these shops is another euro that could be spent elsewhere in the economy. I have written to all of the outlets to try to get to the bottom of the matter. Everyone could understand slight discrepancies between the UK and Ireland, for reasons of travel, etc., but it is very difficult to understand this huge percentage difference.

I have written to our own MEPs to see if any work is being done on this at European level. I have also written to the National Consumer Agency to find out exactly what is going on and what it is doing about this issue. While many aspects of Irish life in 2007 are long gone, we can see that the rip-off Republic is still alive in certain shops. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister, Deputy Bruton, to come to this House when he can find time in his schedule to debate whether we need to strengthen the legislation in this area. It is clear that large multinational retailers are ripping off Irish consumers. I would also like to hear from IBEC and Chambers Ireland on this issue, as many of their big retail members are ripping off consumers in this country.

I ask the Chair to indulge me while I briefly raise another matter. Many international nutritionists are converging on Dublin this week for a conference. The key message of the conference is that there is a clear connection between good nutrition and recovery from serious illness. The statistics show that if one has a good diet and is eating well, one has a much better chance of recovery from serious illness. That is quite apart from any prevention issues we need to be aware of. I am highlighting this in the context of the HSE's various hospital tenders. It has been shown in recent days that hospital patients are being fed chips, battered sausages, frozen pizzas, waffles, pies with 10% meat - God knows what meat - and fish products that contain just 50% fish. I have to agree with some of our leading nutritionists, including Professor Donal O'Shea, an endocrinologist who deals with obesity, who have said it is farcical that the HSE is buying such food at a time when a national task force is being set up to deal with obesity.