Irish consumers are paying the price

THE best economic brains in this country will either sit down with, or analyse, the conclusions reached

There can be no doubt but that the Ireland of 2003 is a very expensive place to live. From the food we purchase to the consumer goods and services we buy, we are among, if not the most, costly country in Europe.

My family and I spent two weeks on a self-catering trip to France in mid-April. Our shopping bill for the week, including the very same products and brands we generally buy in Ireland, was over 35% less than we spend at home.

A family friend, who works for a major French retailing chain, surmised that the reason grocery bills are so high in Ireland is that our supermarkets purchase virtually all the merchandise from Britain, a naive purchasing view that merely serves to push up the cost of food and other services, as well as importing inflation.

There is no reason why grocery chains here cannot charge French, German or Dutch prices for their goods. How much lower would our inflation rate be if these same Irish chains purchased goods in the euro-zone? I suspect they would be substantially lower.

Ken Quigley,

Drumbanna,

Sixmilebridge,

Co Clare.