Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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75. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the actions her Department has taken, in view of the recent EUROSTAT report, which found that the State was the second most expensive country in the European Union for goods and services; the discussions she has had with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission with regard to measures to protect consumers and reduce the cost of living; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36064/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission does not have any role in setting prices. However, it advocates for greater competition across all sectors to reduce costs (including through its membership of the National Competitiveness Council) and also makes recommendations with respect to various sectors of the economy for consideration by the relevant Government bodies responsible for a specific policy area to achieve such reduced costs.

Ensuring that businesses operate in a competitive environment and that business costs are sustainable is a key focus for the National Competitiveness Council which has recently reported to me in its Cost of Doing Business Report 2017 and which I have taken to Cabinet to raise the business related cost issues across the relevant Government Departments.

The NCC research shows that notwithstanding the sharp cost adjustments that Ireland underwent in terms of its cost base across a range of metrics during the crisis, Irish price levels remain elevated compared with many of our competitors. Prices on average, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, registered no growth in 2016 compared to 2015 and were 0.2% higher in April 2017 compared with April 2016. As highlighted by the CSO, the most notable changes in the year were decreases in Transport (-0.52%) and Miscellaneous Goods & Services (-0.04%). The aspects which caused the largest upward contribution in the month were Restaurants & Hotels (+0.12%) and Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+0.08%). Ireland, however, remains a relatively expensive location in which to live and do business with a price profile which can be described as “high cost, rising slowly”. Irish consumer prices remain over 25% above the European Union average.

The NCC has identified a number of recurring cost drivers impacting on a range of business inputs including Housing, Commercial property, Credit costs and interest rate differentials between Irish firms and their European counterparts, Energy and utility costs, Business services costs (e.g. professional services and transport) and Consumer costs (e.g. insurance, health and education).  There is a role for both the public and private sectors alike to proactively manage the controllable portion of their respective cost bases, drive efficiency and continue to take action to address unnecessarily high costs.

The NCC will be reporting to me in December with recommendations in its annual Competitiveness Challenge Report 2017 to address competitive issues in the economy and I will take these to Government for response by the respective Departments and agencies.