Fleming may be sorry for 'shop around' gaffe, but he was reflecting Government policy

Ministers have recently advised the public to switch energy suppliers

Junior finance minister Sean Fleming issued an apology for his 'rather than just complaining' remark. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Government is keen to dampen expectations about the scope of its widely anticipated plan to tackle the cost of living, which will be unveiled on Thursday.

There is no doubt that Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his Cabinet ministers want to intervene in order to tackle rising prices — because it has become a major political issue if nothing else. Yet there is some concern that the Government getting involved directly through price controls or tax cuts is unsustainable or would set a bad precedent.

It was against this backdrop that junior finance minister Sean Fleming was dispatched to RTÉ's Drivetime on Monday, tasked with explaining the Government's plans.

The results will live long in the memory with 'shopping around' set to enter the public lexicon on a long-term basis.

"Rather than just complaining and asking 'what the Government is going to do for me', you could actually have a serious impact on your own finances, but it involves people having to do some work themselves," he told the programme before revealing his take-home salary is "around €1,000" a week.

While encouraging people to search for value in the insurance, mortgage, or other household bills is not a new line of advice, the use of the term 'complaining' — which Mr Fleming clarified was in relation to opposition TDs and not the public — was seized upon and an apology was forced from the Fianna Fáil man.

“I did not intend to imply people shouldn’t complain about the cost of living, that wasn’t my intention, and for that I apologise," he said in a statement.

Bad timing

It was bad timing for the Government to have such a faux pas, given that the Taoiseach had engaged in a high-profile scrap across the Dáil chamber with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald just a fortnight ago on who understands the pressures of working people better.

But 'shopping around' as a public policy is not new — the Government's own strategy from 2016 to 2019 to combat energy poverty says that "the best method of lowering energy costs is to switch energy supplier".

This is all well and good, but that quote continues that "there is mounting evidence that there are a number of barriers preventing people in energy poverty from switching". Anyone who has attempted to switch a service recently can attest to that.

A review of the implementation of that strategy was proposed in 2021 but has not yet commenced. Beyond that, in parliamentary responses in December, both minister of state for public procurement Ossian Smyth and Environment Minister Eamon Ryan advised that people "switch or engage with their energy supplier", saying that many households could "still save on their bills if they did so".

The same month, an oral question response in the Dáil read: “I encourage people to shop around as an immediate way of getting a better price for electricity."

That quote came from Mr Fleming.

'Shopping around' is not a slip of the tongue, it is tacit Government policy. This is perfectly defensible, but don't expect people not to complain about it.