Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for coming in to take this matter on the Adjournment. The issue relates to retailers with sizeable buying power and their ability to compete unfairly against small individual retailers. This issue was highlighted over Christmas in the case of below-cost selling of vegetables and fruits by some retailers. Some retailers in my town point out that they cannot even buy at wholesale prices from suppliers for the same price at which multiple chain retailers can sell the same product. This below-cost selling may sound like a good idea for consumers, but as we know from our experience of the below-cost sale of vegetables over the Christmas period, the multiples are able to sell below cost and squeeze small suppliers and retailers out of the market. Then, when the multiples have got rid of the competition, they can charge whatever price they like.

This practice occurred many moons ago in regard to the sale of petrol and gasoline in the United States, to the point that monopolies were created. We now have retailers that are squeezing the small guys out of the market. Their mantra is that they are doing a service for consumers, but in the long run it will be the consumer who pays higher prices, due to the lack of competition from small retailers.