Rip-Off Republic fuels below cost-selling row
With Enterprise Minister Michael Martin due to make a decision on the Groceries’ Order in October, IBEC and the body representing the grocery industry, RG-DATA, have stepped up intensive lobbying of TDs to retain the order.
A letter circulated by IBEC advises members it is “crucial that we increase the pressure on all TDs” in advance of the decision.
The circular also says that it is vital that members directly contact TDs by telephone or “ideally meetings” rather than by letters.
Rosemary Garth, director of Food and Drink Industry Ireland which is part of IBEC, yesterday described as unfounded the suggestion that this was a means of bypassing the Freedom of Information Act with “under-the-radar” lobbying.
“That sentence has been taken completely out of context. We have nothing to hide. In fact, we are trying to get as much publicity as possible,” she said. The deep divisions between IBEC, the National Consumer Agency (NCA) and the Competition Authority (CA), is also evident from the circular. Both favour scrapping the order.
The circular states that assertions made by the CA on food prices in Ireland are false. It alleges that the authority has “massaged” Central Statistics Office data to support its views.
The CA yesterday said it was standing over its methodology.
“The data we have used is that used by the CSO. These are fairly serious allegations but are not unexpected, such is the fervour of the IBEC campaign,” said a spokesperson.
A spokesperson for the NCA said that it fully stood over its figures and findings. “Our only remit is to put forward the case for the consumer,” he said.
However, Ms Garth yesterday said that IBEC stood foursquare behind its claims. She said CA’s comparisons between prices for food with those for clothing and durables were misleading, the CA had not taken currency fluctuations into account, and the comparisons ended in 2004, just as food prices started to fall.
The row has been ratcheted up by the success of Rip Off Republic and Mr Hobbs’s withering criticisms of the order.
More than 2,000 viewers responded to his call to send nappies to the Department of Enterprise as a gesture against the ban.
