Consumers deserve the protection of a tough, vigilant agency

LET us devoutly pray that the new consumer agency is a cross between Vlad the Impaler and Attila the Hun, bringing us consumerism as it should be: filled with exposes, enemies, victories and punishments.

That’s how it was in the ‘80s. Back then, if a programme like the Gay Byrne Hour lambasted a supermarket chain, shoppers took their business elsewhere so readily that some of the chains which coincidentally disappeared, notably 5 Star, regarded the programme as one of the key reasons for their demise.

The power of one programme at that time was scary. I know, because I did the Dublin research for the shopping basket item and wrote the script based on research conducted by a band of brilliant women around the country. It was the first and only time in my life when, if I said (in a script) “jump!” large businesses competed to say “how high?”