Eamon Quinn: State's consumer guardians not designed for the job  

There is good reason to believe that consumer agencies have been landed with conflicting goals                             

The Central Bank must ensure that Irish banks under its watch will never again threaten to topple the single currency, but it also has a remit to protect consumers, a dual mandate that many critics believe is impossible to achieve.        

Periods of high inflation come around seldom enough that the lessons of previous eras can too easily be forgotten. Twenty years ago, prices were surging as the banks pumped up credit and companies cashed in. The Rip-off Republic moniker was coined. 

The current cost-of-living crisis was created after global economies rebounded from their pandemic lockdowns and then faced the financial fallout from the outbreak of war in Europe. The crisis has similarities with the oil supply shocks of the 1970s.