The Groceries Order

The Chairman of the Competition Authority has been testifying to an Oireachtas committee today on the effects of the abolition last year of the order. The order prohibited below-cost selling of retail goods. The Authority has been a keen advocate of the change. I have been a profound sceptic: I still do not understand why there are any worthwhile benefits to below-cost selling. Given the extremely high concentration in the Irish retail sector and the lack of transparency consequent on the high foreign ownership share, it seems a crazy move to me.

It was "sold" to the public of course on the basis that it would reduce retail prices, and now the public is getting impatient because there is little sign of price reductions.

I haven't seen the text of what the Oireachtas Committee was told this morning, but I hope that it is an improvement on the "wait a little longer" message that other advocates such as the bould Eddie Hobbs have been peddling. I would like to think that the boffins have a model to measure the effect of the change, but I am not holding my breath.

However, I am not going to join the twits who say that because prices have risen, the change in the law has been a failure: perhaps without the change, the rise would have been greater.