Coalition heads for row over Groceries Order ban

THE Coalition partners may be heading for their second row of the year, this time over the Groceries Order, which bans below-invoice cost selling.

The Progressive Democrats yesterday announced they want to abolish the order which has been in place since 1987.

The policy was unanimously agreed at the PDs’ one-day meeting in Dublin.

Party leader Mary Harney argued at the PDs’ parliamentary conference that the order costs Irish households some €500 million per annum on grocery bills.

The PDs are the only party to have expressed outright opposition to the ban on below-invoice selling.

It puts the party on a collision course with Fianna Fáil backbenchers who want it retained.

However, among Cabinet FF colleagues, the PDs may find support for their stance with Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin (FF), who will decide the future of the Groceries Order. He is expected to push for amendments to the order, or perhaps its abolition.

At a hearing of the FF-dominated Oireachtas Enterprise Committee yesterday, TDs and senators from FF, FG and Labour clashed with the Competition Authority (CA) over its stance that the order adversely affects food prices.

Ms Harney maintained the PDs’ strong position had not been swayed by the success of Eddie Hobbs’s Rip-Off Republic.

However, it is clear there is a strong mood against scrapping the order among FF backbenchers. CA chairman Dr John Fingleton stood behind the body’s use of Central Statistics Office (CSO) data.

Figures produced by the CA showed savings of €500m for consumers if the order was scrapped.

Committee chairman Donal Cassidy, as well as Phil Hogan (FG) and Brendan Howlin (Lab), said there was a variance between this calculation and that made by the CSO.

Mr Fingleton said that both were accurate but that the CSO used 2000 as a starting date and that the CA used 2001.

He argued that 2000 would have given the lowest possible prices for items but described the data for that year as an aberration.

In his submission, Mr Fingleton portrayed as “myths” arguments that scrapping the order would lead to predatory pricing, would create ghost villages, would adversely affect lower income groups, and would drive groceries and Irish producers out of business.