Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Section 83 has ten pages and approximately 4,000 words meddling in the grocery business under the illusion that it is an uncompetitive business, which it is not. The existence of new entrants is one of the basic criteria for competition to work. Two new entrants, Aldi and Lidl, have entered the Irish grocery market and have approximately one fifth of it. There are at least eight completely different competing places where one can shop around. During the week, I received a complaint from a member of the agriculture lobby that the price of beef was too low and we needed a regulator. Too many producers in Ireland try to abuse consumer law, such as that which is before us, to engage in restrictive practices, rent seeking and trying to rig the market. The grocery market in Ireland is as near to competition as one will get in the real world.

I wonder why the energy devoted to writing the nearly 4,000 words of the section were not instead put into something such as industrial policy or science and technology as we develop. The Minister is pretending the grocery market is not competitive when it obviously is. There is ease of entry and many producers and consumers. It is old style industrial policy, lobbying and wasting the time of the departmental staff and others engaged in it when they should be out competing and talking to the consumer. That is how a market economy operates. The old industrial policy was clientelism and protectionism whereby people went to the Department seeking tariffs and quotas. We need a contestable market. The thinking in the section is at a substantial cost in terms of administration, the Minister's time and lawyers to accomplish nothing.

Even if the Minister does not like all the people to whom I referred, Bord Bia has a most interesting publication on 133 farmers' markets throughout the country. Farmers do not like any of the people, including Aldi, which advertised that it buys its ice cream in Mallow and its beef in County Laois. If the Senators who were here do not like any of the grocery retailers, Bord Bia lists farmers' markets, which provide alternative ways for farmers to sell products and for consumers to buy. There are six farmers' markets in Waterford, nine in Clare, 17 in Cork, 26 in Dublin, 14 in Kerry, five in Meath and 12 in Galway. I refer just to the counties of the Senators who were here during the debate. I agree with Senator Quinn that there is no lack of competition in the Irish grocery trade and it is a pity we waste so much valuable Government and bureaucratic intelligence when we should do something better with our time. This is why I oppose the sections on the grocery trade.

In this Bill we promote competition and the consumer. This is an area in which competition works, and the evidence is before our eyes. So what if some producers do not like it? Yesterday, I mentioned that in the UK the cost of food has decreased from 30% of the family budget to 9%. The grocery trade is working and there is no need to reinvent a "Joe Stalin" style economy to regulate the grocery business. I look forward to the day when we grow up, accept that it is a competitive business and stop trying to introduce all these petty regulations.