Government 'all mouth and no trousers' when is comes to addressing price inflation 

Junior minister with special responsibility for retail business Neale Richmond convened a meeting of the Retail Forum to address a near 17% food price inflation in the last year. Picture: Leah Farrell /RollingNews.ie

The Government has been slammed as "all mouth and no trousers" after a meeting with retailers delivered little in the way of concrete action on food prices.

Neale Richmond, junior minister with special responsibility for retail business, convened a meeting of the Retail Forum to address a near 17% food price inflation in the last year.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Richmond said that he had “an open and frank conversation with the members of the Retail Forum" and that he had received assurances that lower input costs would be passed to the consumer.

I am pleased to say that I received assurances from retailers that, where reductions in input costs filter through to products, consumers will benefit from this.

The forum will meet again collectively to review the issue at the end of next month, Mr Richmond said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told a private meeting of Fine Gael TDs, senators, and MEPs that the "clear message" had been sent to the industry that "prices must come down as the input costs decrease". 

Mr Varadkar had earlier ruled out price caps on food on the basis of advice from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). The Government can impose such caps but the CCPC said it did not see evidence of a market failure in the inflation of food costs.

The CCPC in its advice said that price controls in the retail grocery sector "would present a significant risk to the Irish economy and consumers". 

The commission says that the Government should set out transparent criteria for "how the emergency is defined and how any price control proposes to address the emergency" as well as "detailed design, implementation, and costs" and an analysis of the potential for unintended consequences to harm consumers in the longer run.

Government criticism 

The lack of concrete plans was slammed by Labour's Ged Nash.

What we got is more pleading and hoping from the Government and Minister Richmond that the supermarkets will see fit to cooperate and play fair.

“This charade of a meeting shows that when it comes to bringing grocery bills down, this Government is all mouth and no trousers.”

Retail Ireland director Arnold Dillon said after the meeting that retailers had held off increasing prices for as long as possible.

He said retailers are actively working to minimise the impact of "EU-wide commodity price increases".

"Specific pricing decisions are a matter for individual retailers, but intense competition in the sector will ensure that consumers benefit from falling commodity prices," he added.

Mr Dillon said Irish food inflation is among the lowest in Europe over recent years.

He added: "We expect general inflation and food inflation to ease as we move through the year."

The meeting came as two retailers — Tesco and Aldi — announced cuts to the cost of their own brand breads by 10c a loaf, following earlier cuts in milk and butter prices by retailers.