LAST UPDATE | 24 Jun

LEADERS’ QUESTIONS IN the Dáil today was largely dominated by the rising cost of living, with calls for the government to crack down on profiteering supermarkets. 

Social Democrats acting leader Cian O’Callaghan called on the government to mandate that supermarket chains and retailers publish their profits, something they are not currently required to do.

Data published earlier this month revealed that food prices are up on average 5% in the last year, while households report that they have been cutting back or making changes to their usual purchases.

In the five years to last month, prices for an average basket of food and non-alcoholic drinks increased by 23.4%, data from the Central Statistics Office shows.

The issue was raised today in the Dáil by both Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats.

O’Callaghan said: “Many families are now spending an extra €3,000 a year on their grocery bills and prices are still increasing. Anyone doing their weekly shopping will have noticed recently prices again beginning to soar.” 

“Soaring food prices are something the government promised to address, Taoiseach. It’s now been more than two years since Minister Neale Richmond organised his meeting with grocery retailers to discuss runaway prices,” O’Callaghan said, adding that this was something done only for “optics”. 

“He turned up, wagged his finger and everyone went home. Grocery prices are higher now than they ever have been so if you think that was a success it really hasn’t been,” he said.

In 2023, then minister of state with responsibility for retail Neale Richmond convened a meeting with supermarket retailers over concerns of price gouging. 

At the time, he said the government did have the power to implement price caps, but that it did not want to go down that road. 

O’Callaghan today said there is no way to prove if supermarkets are price-gouging because they are not obligated to publish their profits.

“Given that people have to buy food, there’s no choice on this, why isn’t this a requirement for all supermarket retailers and chains,” he said.

He called on the government to mandate that supermarkets publish their profits.

In response, Taoiseach Micheál Martin claimed that the Irish government introduced one of the most significant cost-of-living packages in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent inflation spike. 

He also pointed to other government measures, such as free school lunches, free school books and free public transport schemes for some students, as ways in which the government has been trying to support households with the cost of living.

“I can assure you Deputy, we understand fully the degree to which this is impacting people, households, families, but we’ve taken very effective measures, ones that even the Social Democrats didn’t advocate for,” he said. 

Likewise, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also accused the government of failing to “exert any real pressure” on retailers. 

“Your latest plan, it seems, is to do absolutely nothing, to stick your head in the sand, allow people to be ripped off week in and week out.

“Let me just give you some more CSO data – over five years, sugar is up 54%.

“A filet of cod, up 55%, pork sausages 21%, lamb 48%, spaghetti up 46%.

“Nothing has changed, people are still to the pin of their collar,” she said.