Food prices - Consumer power can reduce costs

In the course of his phenomenally successful television series, Rip Off Republic, Eddie Hobbs advocated that people should send nappies to the Department of Enterprise as a means of encouraging the minister to repeal the Groceries Order.

It was confidently predicted last year that if the order prohibiting below-cost selling were removed, grocery prices would fall by from 9% to 20% as a result.

The Hobbs campaign prompted a relatively quick response. Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin introduced legislation last November to remove the Groceries Order, and this came into effect on March 20 of this year.