Groceries Order - Nappies to keep minister in check

WHEN Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin opens his departmental post this morning he will find a damning document among the nappies which, presumably, by now are arriving at his office in a growing nationwide campaign for consumer rights.

The blunt message in the report from the Competition Authority is that a legislative device originally introduced to protect the corner shop and the average consumer, is largely responsible for jacking up food prices in rip-off Ireland.

Drawn up in 1987, after the collapse of a retail group, the aim of the Groceries Order was to protect small shops from the onslaught of predatory supermarket giants.