Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 34: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the matters discussed at her meeting with the National Consumer Agency on 23 May 2008; if decisions were made at the meeting; if she plans new initiatives arising from the rapid increase in prices on a range of items, particularly food products; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23920/08]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 119: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the action she has taken or proposes to take to combat rising prices; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24222/08]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 121: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if her attention has been drawn to the increase in prices to the consumer with particular reference to the food sector at a time when producers are being paid less; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24224/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 34, 119 and 121 together.

I share Deputies' concerns about recent increases in the price of goods and services. The greater part of those increases have resulted from global factors over which Government here has little or no influence. Approximately 60 per cent of the rise in the Consumer Price Index in the year to May 2008 was attributable to rises in the price of fuels, food and mortgage interest rates.

Measured on a harmonised basis, our inflation rate in the year to May 2008 was 3.7 per cent, the same as the euro area average and below the EU average of 3.9 per cent. Only 5 member states recorded a lower annual inflation rate over this period. Though we all obviously wish that price rises here were lower, these figures show that our current inflation performance is on a par with that in comparable countries and is, if anything, a little better than the EU norm.

The increase in food prices over the past year is a particular cause for concern as these bear most heavily on less well-off households. In the year to May 2008, the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages, as measured by Consumer Price Index data compiled by the CSO, increased by 7.8 per cent. This increase is mainly due to the international rise in commodity and energy prices. Food prices have risen sharply in virtually all parts of the world with serious effects on some developing countries in particular.

Though there is no doubt that consumers are paying more for food products, it is not correct to say that food producers are all being paid less. The most recent CSO data on the prices paid to farmers for agricultural produce show substantial increases in cereal and milk prices in particular. Though input costs have also risen significantly and farmers will maintain that a disproportionate share of the retail price of food products still goes to processors and retailers, it should be acknowledged that farm gate prices have risen considerably for some products.

Though I am reluctant to make forecasts about future price developments, particularly in a sector as prone to price volatility as food, there is evidence that food price inflation has begun to moderate. The cumulative increase of 1.4 per cent in food prices in the three months to May 2008, for example, was half the increase of 2.8 per cent in the three months to April 2008. The Consumer Price Index data for May 2008 also showed reductions over the preceding month in the price of a number of food items such as eggs, breakfast cereals, cheese and biscuits. Though food prices remain subject to considerable uncertainty and are very unlikely to return to the lower values of the past, there is reason to believe that the level of price increase over the next year will not mirror that of the last twelve months.

Consumer prices in Ireland cannot escape the effects of global increases in commodity and energy prices and it would be misleading to pretend otherwise. What we can do domestically is to work to promote greater competition in the retail sector and to encourage and empower consumers to use their purchasing power to put pressure on retailers to compete on price with their rivals. The Government have asked the Competition Authority to monitor the operation of the grocery trade on an ongoing basis in respect of matters such as the competitive structure of the wholesale and retail sectors and the analysis of price trends.

At my meeting with senior officials of the National Consumer Agency on 21 May, we agreed on the need for more frequent and extensive price surveys, including surveys comparing prices here and in Northern Ireland of the kind published yesterday. The findings of that survey underline the need for more effective competition in the retail sector. The publication of more regular and more comprehensive price information by the National Consumer Agency, and a willingness by consumers to act on that information, have an important part to play in the development of a more competitive retail marketplace. The meeting with the NCA also discussed the reluctance of retailers generally to reduce the prices of goods imported from the UK in line with the appreciation of the euro against sterling. Subsequent to that discussion, I have taken a number of steps to bring the Government's concerns on this matter to the direct attention of retailers. I will continue to engage with retailers on this issue, and on any other issue where such engagement is warranted, in the interests of securing a satisfactory outcome for Irish consumers.