Liz McManus
Question:133 Ms McManus asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will make a statement on her recent decision on the groceries order. [26569/00]
Written Answers. - Groceries Order.
The Restrictive Practices (Groceries) Order, 1987, was the subject of one of 40 recommendations contained in the final report of the Competition and Mergers Review Group which I published in May last.
On the matter of the Groceries Order, the majority of the review group recommended that the Groceries Order be repealed; any legislation or regulation introduced in relation to the grocery trade should not include a ban on below cost selling; and some form of regulation be introduced in relation to the grocery trade which would in particular require suppliers to publish the terms on which they are prepared to trade with retailers, would require retailers to honour the credit terms on which suppliers are prepared to trade with them, would ban "hello money", and would require retailers not to discriminate between classes of customers in respect of the products which they sell.
The recommendation gave rise to a lot of debate and having carefully considered all the arguments and having consulted widely with interested parties on both sides of the debate, I came to the view that it was not in the consumer's interest to remove the ban on below cost selling at the present time.
The argument as to where the consumer's interest lay was finely balanced and there was influential opinion on each side of the debate. I concluded that the evidence did not suggest that any significant benefit, or perhaps any benefit at all, would accrue to consumers if the order were to be repealed now. There was also the argument that below cost selling could be used to eliminate competition and restrict consumer choice in local markets.
As the grocery sector is changing rapidly, I intend to keep the position under review.