Níl aon duine tagtha. Nobody has appeared, so I am-----
Food Costs and High Grocery Bills: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
Debate resumed on the following motion:
That Dáil Éireann:
acknowledges that:
— unsustainably high grocery and food bills continue to put workers and families under significant financial pressure; and
— this pressure has been exacerbated by the failure of the Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Pascal Donohoe TD, to provide certainty to workers and families in respect of energy bills and mortgage relief from rising interest rates;
notes that:
— grocery prices have soared by almost 17 per cent over the past year, with inflation in Irish supermarkets at the highest level ever recorded by retail analysts Kantar across the past 12 months;
— the latest figures for the 12-week period to 16th April show the rate of food inflation is 16.6 per cent; and
— this means the average annual grocery bill is set to rise by approximately €1,200 if consumers maintain the same shopping habits;
furthermore notes that:
— the sustained historic levels of grocery inflation underscore the need for the yet to be established An Rialálaí Agraibhia (Agri-Food Regulator) to be empowered to investigate anti-competitive practices in the agri-food supply chain; and
— the primary function of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), as defined in Section (8)(1)(a) of the Consumer Protection Act 2007, is to promote and protect the interests and welfare of consumers;
condemns:
— the failure of this Government to take decisive and urgent action while food prices soar;
— the decision by the Government in Budget 2023 to provide rate increases to social welfare recipients and pensioners significantly short of what was required to cope with inflation, despite proposals brought forward by Sinn Féin and others who recognised the need for greater weekly social welfare increases; and
— the inadequacy of Government measures which has prompted growing reliance on food banks; and
calls on the Government to:
— do all in its power to ensure savings made by supermarkets and large food retailers in respect of falling input costs are passed onto consumers through lower grocery prices;
— instruct the CCPC to investigate possible price gouging in the retail food and grocery sector;
— further increase weekly social welfare and pension rates to stem the flow of families and pensioners into food poverty; and
— amend the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 to give the proposed Agri-Food Regulator powers to investigate anti-competitive practices in the agri-food supply chain.
They have gone home to watch the Eurovision.
I know things have moved quickly so I am sure people have been taken unawares. With the Minister of State's patience, I will give just a couple of seconds, literally, and then we will move on to him. The debate has moved much quicker than anticipated. Táim ag dul go dtí an Rialtas anois agus an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Calleary.
Cuirim fáilte roimh an díospóireacht seo augs roimh Theachtaí Shinn Féin agus Theachtaí Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre atá anseo agus a ghlac páirt sa díospóireacht tábhachtach seo. Tuigeann gach Comhalta sa Teach seo agus sa Teach eile an brú atá ar dhaoine faoi chúrsaí airgeadais ag an nóiméad seo agus faoi chúrsaí praghsanna sna siopaí. Tá an Rialtas ag déanamh an-iarracht an fhadhb seo a réiteach, ag obair le gach taobh den Teach. Is é sin an fáth nach mbeimid ag dul in aghaidh an rúin seo agus an fáth go bhfuilimid ag obair chomh dian ar na cúrsaí seo ag an bpointe seo.
I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the debate this evening and I thank all Deputies who took part in it. The Government remains very committed to helping to protect the most vulnerable families and businesses from the cost-of-living challenges that face them at the moment. This Government has taken unprecedented actions to date to alleviate, to the extent that it can, the pressures being felt by people, families and businesses across the country. To reiterate, this work includes having introduced a suite of measures worth €2.4 billion in 2022 to assist households with their energy costs, and the cost-of-living budget provided for a further €2.5 billion in one-off measures to support households with rising costs. As a Government, we have made it clear that we will continue to monitor this situation and keep such supports under review in the context of budget 2024, the work for which is getting under way. I thank all Deputies for their contribution this evening but I acknowledge in particular Deputy Nash's contribution. In his time in the Department, he established the retail forum, which I refer to ahead of our meeting tomorrow, and I know that the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, will take on board the Deputy's messages this evening to that forum.
There are a range of supports, in energy costs, business supports and direct business assistance, that we have provided to assist citizens and businesses, but I will focus in my concluding remarks on a number of issues, in particular the role of the CCPC and what it can do in this area.
Mindful of the cost-of-living increases, the Government will ask the CCPC to continue to prioritise action against unlawful practices that have a direct effect on increasing consumer prices or which exploit a more inflationary environment. The CCPC is also developing its online money tool system to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of consumers and reflect current industry offerings. The Department welcomes this more visible and active role by the CCPC in reminding consumers of their rights and, in particular, reminding businesses of their consumer and competition obligations. In 2022, the CCPC conducted 76 in-store compliance inspections in respect of different pricing requirements in a variety of sectors.
This included 19 petrol stations.
A particular focus for inspection activity in 2022 was the grocery retail sector. This is the sector with the greatest share of household expenditure, as noted by previous speakers. Some 25 inspections were conducted across the five largest retailers. The CCPC found broad compliance following its inspections of those retailers. It found that those in the sector were very engaged and constructive in striving to meet their obligations. The CCPC is an independent statutory agency. It continues to conduct inspections in 2023 in the context of different pricing requirements in a variety of sectors. It also continues to find broad compliance and engagement. When the CCPC receives complaints in respect of prices, it assesses them to see if they indicate a possible breach of one of the areas of competition or consumer protection law it is tasked with enforcing. The CCPC also acts on its own initiative where it suspects there may have been a breach. I note the recent reductions by supermarket chains in respect of butter and milk products. I also caution that the Government has introduced and is finalising the journey of legislation relating to the agricultural and food supply chain. Farm families should not have to pay for the reductions in question. They should be paid out of the profits of the retailers.
The establishment of the new office of an rialálaí agraibhia, the agrifood regulator, was a key programme for Government commitment. It will be a new independent statutory body under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It will be a strong advocate for farmers and small food suppliers. The regulator will have real powers and will rigorously enforce laws relating to unfair trading practices. It will be a guardian for those who produce food domestically and will bring much-needed and greater transparency to the agricultural and food supply chain. Such transparency is very much at the heart of this evening's debate.
The meeting of the retail forum tomorrow will proceed. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and I will be here on Thursday morning to respond to parliamentary questions. Deputy O'Reilly has tabled a question about this matter. The Government will continue to work to ensure that families get direct supports to assist them during this crisis and ensure that businesses, and small businesses in particular, get support through a range of schemes. We will continue, in the context of budget preparations, to focus on the subject matter of this debate and on the information that has been provided.
Given that this is a Sinn Féin motion, and Sinn Féin has the right to reply at the end, I will go back to allow others to contribute. I am not setting a precedent for the future, nor am I setting a precedent on behalf of the Ceann Comhairle. I will go back now to the Social Democrats and work forward from Deputy Cairns.
Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle; I really appreciate it. I welcome this opportunity to discuss soaring food costs and the hardship that extortionate prices are causing for so many workers and families. The Social Democrats support this important Sinn Féin motion.
We do not talk about food enough in this House. Food is one of the absolute necessities of life. Families should be guaranteed access to affordable healthy food. That should be one of the most basic indicators of a Government's success. The Government is failing families every day, however. Just like housing and other necessities, the Government has neither the ambition nor the will to solve the crisis.
Food inflation now stands at 17%, far in excess of general inflation. Grocery bills have skyrocketed by at least €1,200 in the past year. These kinds of increases are not sustainable, especially for people like pensioners who are on fixed incomes. They are not alone, however. In 2021, nearly 450,000 people experienced food poverty. Research by Barnardos earlier this year revealed that the number of parents using food banks more than doubled in 2022 to almost one in ten parents. When that shocking study was published, the Taoiseach was more interested in disputing the results than responding to the terrifying reality that so many families are on the brink. The biggest price rises have been to staple food items. Central Statistics Office figures for March show that fresh whole milk was up by almost one quarter, eggs by 20% and a sliced pan by 17% compared with the same last year. Prices are increasing relentlessly at a time when households have to choose between heating or eating and when parents go without meals or without feeding their children. Pensioners, disabled people, single parents and others on low and middle incomes are feeling the pain most acutely.
The Government claims it is helping, but it is completely out of touch. One-off measures, miserly increases in social protection rates and delayed action on energy prices have allowed the situation to get even worse for families. The Government should be prioritising two key interventions to help people, namely, increasing supports for low- and middle-income earners and tackling the obscene profiteering by retailers and wholesalers. The Government did not use the budget to address this crisis. It was obliged to announce further cost-of-living supports earlier this year. However, it has not addressed the underlying structural issues that have left more and more families vulnerable to an out-of-control market. It is not because it does not have the capacity to do it; it is because there is no political will.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, responding to the budget in September, pointed out that "the failure to increase social welfare payments in line with inflation puts many people at risk next year of being pulled further into the kind of grinding daily hardship that is ... [so] difficult to escape." Small increases to social welfare rates at levels that fall short of inflation are not sufficient to lift people out of poverty. They increase the risk of poverty for single-parent families, pensioners and anyone on a low income. The disgraceful lack of targeted support for disabled people exemplified the Government's disregard for those most in need. The Department of Social Protection's cost of disability report showed that even before the cost-of-living crisis, it cost up to €12,000 more to live with a disability in Ireland. We all know that is an underestimation. What was the Government's response? A one-off payment. As well as being insufficient, this was insulting. Disability is not one-off or temporary so why would the supports be one-off? The Social Democrats proposed a €20 per week cost of disability payment as a first step to the State finally recognising that the costs associated with disability are recurring, unavoidable and hugely expensive. Disabled people and others who are facing ongoing economic disadvantage need to be supported with permanent measures, not one-off payments.
Another major and long overdue intervention is the regulation of the food sector. As it stands, there is a complete absence of oversight of pricing. We can see the result of this in the massive increase in food banks, charities distributing food vouchers and the thousands of families wondering how they will put food on the table. These are symptoms of a sector that is out of control. Primary producers are not stoking this greedflation. Many of them are also struggling to get by. Even though food prices are rising rapidly, in some cases farmers and fishers are actually making less, especially smaller farmers and inshore fishers. Bord Iascaigh Mhara's, BIM, recent report entitled An Economic Analysis of the Irish Small-scale Fleet makes for grim reading. The net profit fishers make is, in effect, their salary, which is already very low compared with average incomes. These profits are being slashed by rising operating costs. The report's projections warn that polyvalent potters with vessels under 6 m will "see their net profit fall by 50% ... [and] in the 6-10m class the impacts range from a 33% reduction ... for the pelagic vessels to a 70% reduction for the potters."
These fishers are certainly not profiting from the almost 27% increase in frozen fish prices in shops over the past year. The whole sector is in crisis. These vessels make up the majority of our fishing fleet and yet the Government is refusing to give them the support they need to address soaring fuel costs. The BIM report outlines the pressures inshore fishers are facing and yet the Minister is refusing to draw from European funding mechanisms to address the needs the sector has identified. Fishers will simply withdraw from the sector. Not only are these irreplaceable jobs in coastal and island communities but they are also an important part of our culture. This is all being put needlessly at risk by Government inaction.
Sheep farmers are another group who are struggling to get by. Again, the increases in sheep meat prices for consumers bears no relation to the prices farmers receive. The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association said that farmers need to be paid €8.30 per kilogram for lamb for it to be a viable sector. The price farmers were receiving was €8.10, but it has been as little as €7.50 this year.
Farmers are working below the cost of production, which is unsustainable. The value of sheep meat rose in 2022, while massive increases in operating costs saw profits for farmers plummeting. There have been repeated calls for a rescue package to address the situation but the Government has again refused. These cases highlighted a much larger problem in the agrifood sector. The people at both ends of the supply chain, that is, consumers and producers, are being squeezed. Families have to pay more for food while farmers and fishers are getting less for the same produce. It is glaringly obvious that the larger retailers, wholesalers, meat factories and food processors are cleaning up here. They are the ones profiting. That became even clearer last week when supermarket groups reduced prices on selected items in a headline-grabbing gimmick. While any reduction in prices is welcome, these stunts reveal the retailers' capacity to suddenly lower prices when it suits them. The Government needs to direct the CCPC to investigate these issues immediately. This motion rightly emphasises that to fulfil the CCPC's function to promote and protect the interests of consumers, the entire sector needs to be put under a microscope.
There is an important opportunity for the Government to bring in a new system to oversee the food supply chains in a way that will protect both consumers and primary producers. However, the Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 falls far short of this. I have repeatedly called for a proper independent regulator with the capability to unrestrictedly develop and implement regulations and commensurate powers to investigate potential violations and implement the law. Instead, consumers, farmers, fishers and other producers are being offered a new office that is a regulator in name only. The capacity to make regulations will remain with the Minister who, to date, has been unwilling to tackle the big players profiting from the work of producers and the cost to consumers. The new office also need powers to investigate anti-competitive practices in the agrifood supply chain. The regulatory office will be able to carry out some forms of investigation and collate information but ultimately that will be it. It will amount to nothing more than more reports unless there are grossly unfair practices involved. We need a regulatory system that can intervene in the market and establish fair prices for producers and consumers. This is about ensuring families can afford to feed their children and guaranteeing that our farmers, fishers and small-scale producers can make a living.
All of this is achievable. In the absence of Government action, I am working on a Private Members' Bill in this area. I am trying to do what the Government is unwilling to do to support food producers and to protect consumers at the same time.
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this important motion. Profiteering is the problem. It is as simple as that. Grocery prices have risen by 17%, an estimated increased cost of €1,200 for the average household. That is additional profit being made by somebody else. We all know who is making those profits. It is the big supermarket chains, wholesalers and meat processors. Their profits are going through the roof while ordinary people are crucified with unsustainable increases in the cost of groceries. That reflects the more general problem we are facing with the cost-of-living crisis. While ordinary people, households and workers are seeing dramatic cuts in their real income, the corporate sector has enjoyed an absolute bonanza. That is the elephant in the room which the Government does not want to acknowledge. The facts speak for themselves. It is rare that the figures in respect of corporate profits are discussed but when they are, those figures are so fantastic as to seem abstract to people. However, those profits are real and incredible.
I am a nerd in this regard. I study corporate profits, perhaps because I am a member of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. The increase in corporate profits in this country is beyond belief. It is staggering. In the last quarter of 2022, profits for the entire corporate sector in this country were €80 billion. That was up from ten years previously when the profits for the entire year of 2012 were €80 billion. We do not have the total figure for 2022 but we are talking about a quadrupling of corporate profits in a decade while the income of ordinary workers has been cut over the past two years. The real buying power based on the wages and salaries of ordinary workers has been cut but profits have gone through the roof. The so-called inflation crisis is a transfer of wealth. It is as plain as day. As prices go up, the energy companies, corporate landlords, supermarket chains, real estate investment trusts, REITs, and vulture funds make a fortune. The big manufacturers make an absolute fortune and ordinary people get whacked. They are whacked to the point that 671,000 people in this country are living in poverty. Of course, even the figure of €1,200 in inflated grocery costs masks the reality for working people who spend a much higher proportion of their income on food and energy, which have increased in cost. They also spend a high proportion of their income on housing. If the average figure is €1,200 across the population, we are talking about at least €2,000, if not €3,000, in increased cost just to put food on the table. Added to that are the increases in energy costs and the rents, accommodation and mortgage costs that most ordinary people are paying for the roofs over their heads. People are getting crucified.
At the same time, people who have surplus money and who are rich can buy shares in the Bank of Ireland, some private energy company, Tesco or some meat processing company. They can sit back and just watch the dividends roll in. They can watch the profits rising. They can watch the value of their assets and their balance sheets improving and improving. That is what is going on. There are tens of thousands of very rich people in this country who are sitting back and getting richer from all of this while doing nothing to earn it. They are doing zero; zilch. They go to their stockbrokers and ask what they should invest their excess wealth in. Their stockbrokers tell them where the profits are to be made. That is all they have to do to get richer and richer. When some of us suggest we ought to consider putting a cap on the profits of these companies, putting a cap on the maximum prices they can charge per kWh or for a basket of basic food items and groceries, or that we should cap rents, there are gasps. We are told that cannot possibly be done and that it would be economic lunacy and madness. We are told it is not even worth considering because it is so crazy. Why is it so crazy to cap the profits that are being made by these companies and to put maximum prices on the amounts they can charge people who are being impoverished and driven into a financially and economically unsustainable situation and, in many cases, into outright poverty? Their children are also being driven into outright poverty.
A very significant proportion of them are actually being driven into a situation where they have no roof over their heads. It is a stain on any decent civilised society, or any society that calls itself one, which we do, but yet we allow this to happen. We are told we cannot do these things. We have been calling for maximum price caps and the use of the Consumer Protection Act, which is there in law. When there is an emergency in the supply and cost of certain goods, the Government has the power. It is in laws that were not even written by the left but written by the Government more than a decade ago to cap prices. If it was considered a reasonable thing to put in legislation more than a decade ago, why is the Government now saying it cannot be done? Of course it can be done.
The other irony on which I must comment briefly was the comment by the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, that we should not forget about the war in Ukraine and how that has contributed to all of this. I read a very good report today by the Transnational Institute about the profiteering that is going on in the arms industry. The Orwellian logic of this just sickens me. The amount of money that is being spent in Europe on military expenditure, arms and weapons and means to kill people is increasing dramatically. As the report explains very well, all of that was happening well in advance of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There has been a sustained push to increase expenditure on arms and weapons, and the truth is that every dollar, euro, or whatever the currency is that is spent on creating weapons to kill people, to end people's lives, is money that is not put into housing, health, education and eliminating poverty and inequality. That is the truth, yet the Government does not want to acknowledge it. This is probably all falling on deaf ears because the Government and the main parties in it think it is acceptable to operate in an economy where poverty is increasing, the cost of putting food on the table is becoming unsustainable, where people are homeless and so on. I am not saying the Government does not want to address it at all, but we cannot go too far in addressing it if it upsets the people who want to go down to the stockbroker and invest in the companies that are making profits. That is the reality of it. If that is not true, the Government should do it, because it can do it. It has the legal power to do it, and it certainly has the moral obligation to do it when people are having to make choices between food on the table for their children, turning on the heating when it is cold or being able to pay the rent to keep the roof over their head.
I compliment Sinn Féin on bringing forward this motion. It is important we debate what is a very pertinent issue for many people in the country.
As a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, I want to say a few words about people with disabilities during this debate on the cost of living, the cost of food and everything else. The Indecon report, which was commissioned by the Government, clearly demonstrated that, on average, the cost of living with a disability, is €9,200 per person per annum. The report was done prior to any of the inflationary pressures we have had prior to the war in Ukraine and the other reasons that caused it. Given the funding that is coming in through corporation tax, I plead with the Government to look at people with disabilities in the next budget with a view to putting in place a personalised additional budget on top of the social welfare they are getting at the moment to ensure we close the gap between the cost of their disability and allowing them to live. We had a debate about it last week, but it is important we do something in the budget this year because we have an opportunity to do it given we have money now. We must make sure we do it in a way that is effective for people who have a disability.
I have spoken previously about mortgages. It is important we take on board the fact that people with a tracker mortgage are coming under severe pressure because their mortgage is rising month upon month and their repayments are getting higher. Last week, I came across a couple in my constituency, both of whom have found themselves on disability payments. They are on a tracker mortgage and they do not want to fall behind. They do not want to have a bad credit rating on their mortgage. They have probably 15 or 16 years of their mortgage paid and, unfortunately, they have found themselves in a difficult position. Their mortgage has gone up possibly by €500 per month in recent months, and that is not sustainable for them. They are being forced into trying to live like slaves to a mortgage, while they are still under pressure with their health. It is important we look at people in such situations, whose mortgage is costing them a lot of money every month, so that they do not become slaves to a mortgage and we give them respite, for example, by giving tax relief and by giving other reliefs to people who are not earning money who still have a mortgage.
The cost of food is a double-edged sword. I come from a rural constituency where many farmers have spent the past couple of months during the lambing season trying to look after their flock to make sure the lambs come fully around and are ready for sale in the next couple of months. They have put hard work into all of this and they have been under stress from being up during the night maybe four or five times. The whole family is involved. The situation arises that they might have plenty of lambs for sale but they do not have a clue what price they will get for their product at the end of the day as there is no guarantee. I heard the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, talk about bringing in legislation on food prices and the supply chain and seeing where the costs are coming from in order to have a more transparent industry where we can see the inputs, costs and profits. It is very important we do that to provide transparency in the food chain in this country. Otherwise, we will find ourselves without farmers producing food and then we will have to buy imported food and be at the mercy of outside traders. It is important we do what has been outlined, which I welcome.
The price of lamb has gone down for farmers but the price of the lamb at the counter might not have gone down. The other side of the coin is the reduction in the price of milk or butter. We must ask if at the end of the day it is the producer who is paying for the reduction in cost or if it is being borne by the supermarket chains that are putting these measures in place for marketing purposes. We are playing around with people's livelihoods.
Hear, hear.
It is very important we make sure the people who produce the food are protected and that consumers understand the implications when they see a loss leader like that coming into play. We must have a very strict adherence to whatever legislation comes in because sometimes we put in good legislation but we do not enforce it and it takes a long time for it to take effect.
The other area I wish to raise relates to the banks and mortgages. It is a bit like everything else in that the interest rates on a mortgage go up but there is not a pro rata increase for people who have deposits in banks. That is an important aspect of the debate. We cannot allow the banks to go back to their old habits, which they probably are doing, of grabbing as much as they can and giving away as little as possible to increase the gap in their profits. As a State, we have a fair ownership in AIB, but we also have a fair record of keeping other banks in survival mode. The people of this country did it, so it is important that where people have money on deposit, they get a fair rate of interest for their deposit as well.
There is no excuse for this anymore.
We talk about price gouging and other things happening, but across every sector in Ireland we have seen prices increasing, including in construction. Those paying for it are the people trying to build or buy a house or put in a bathroom for a disabled person, for example. The prices have gone up. Funnily enough, they are not coming down now. Even though I see the prices of petrol and diesel coming down, I do not see transport costs or other costs coming down in the same way. Therefore, we need to monitor this very closely. We should be in a position in which we can decide how people are doing their business and ensure they are doing so with effect.
We have a great country and great people but there are many suffering silently and living from week to week. They are paying their mortgages and working away, yet they are slaves to their mortgages and work. Their lives are what I would call tough and they are trying to raise families. We all recognise this. By having more control over the bigger organisations, such as the banks and retail outlets, everyone would get a fair share and nobody would take an opportunity that would put others in misery.
I am confident the Government will introduce measures that will ensure nobody loses out. The ground is very uneven at the moment and we do not know where we are going, meaning people can be left behind. In this regard, let me return to the subject of the people I spoke about first, people with disabilities. In 2023, through budget 2024, we have an opportunity to put something in place for them, and to put it into effect from 2023.
I welcome the motion but unfortunately the carbon tax has been ignored. Parties such as Sinn Féin and others are voting to support it. It results in a direct cost on our goods. The Government policy of consistently attacking productive agriculture to keep the Green Party on side means a major weakness in our food policy. It is as simple as that. The Government will not tackle the conglomerates, oil companies or the ESB, with their massive profits. What is the problem? Is the Government in hock to these people? Did it promise them the sun, moon and stars? Do they own the Government? Is the Government so in their pockets that it will not tackle them? We have for ages been talking about decoupling oil from wind energy. We did that kicking and screaming and were the last in Europe to do it. We have the highest prices in Europe. The Taoiseach today lamented that our prices are 40% higher than those in some other countries but he also said that wages were 40% higher in Ireland. I do not know where he is getting those figures. Does he forget that the Government voted two weeks ago to increase the excise duty and VAT on petrol and diesel again? The increases are to be next June, August and October. The price will be up 23 cent. Who is codding whom? The genie is out of the bottle here and the public can see it.
I beg the Government to do something for the hard-pressed, struggling people. The figures that have been quoted, which are available for everyone to see, indicate there are hundreds of thousands of people in fuel poverty. Hundreds of thousands who have always paid their way have electricity and gas bill overruns, yet the Government allows the companies to charge extortionate rates and rubs its hands and fiddles while Rome burns. It will be fiddling and fiddling until it will be fiddled. It will play itself a tune, the lonesome lament. It will be well out of here and gone.
The high cost of doing business in Ireland is extremely challenging. We can see that each week in our shopping bills. I selected basic shopping bills from trolleys over seven years and noted that, surprisingly, the basic prices of milk, eggs, bread and butter have increased by 15% and those of vegetables and meat have gone up by 40%. This highlights to me the issues of farmers' inputs, their daily high feed and fuel costs and the high cost of fertiliser. Despite these, they are getting for their produce the same prices they got seven years ago. They have been completely beaten down to the extent that they are even leaving the land in their droves.
Inflation in the grocery trade is influenced by factors such as supply and demand, input costs, Government policy, the retailers, food producers, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, whose function is to protect the interests and welfare of consumers. An agrifood regulator is to be appointed. When are the regulators going to step up and protect us? Every family today faces increasing costs.
With the green agenda in place, farmers have been put on their knees. All those shopping for their families for survival have been put on their knees. The Government is considering increasing fuel taxes again coming up to harvest season. Again, when the suppliers are supplying us to feed us, the Government is raising the taxes. The only body with money in the coffers at the moment is the Government but it is not protecting the people who are trying to feed their families every single day. All it is doing is taxing them out of existence.
I appreciate the introduction of this motion by Sinn Féin. Fuel and grocery costs are a huge issue for many families. To be quite honest with the Government, it is standing idly by and letting people suffer. There are interest-rate hikes such that people are now unable to pay for their mortgages, putting them in mortgage arrears. This could result in the vulture funds, the Government's buddies, taking their homes or businesses from them. The Government continues to increase the price of fuel. Over the coming months, it is to increase it by 18%. This is an astonishing attack on the ordinary person, be it a farmer or mother. The figures are 23% for petrol and 18% for diesel. It is a really greedy tax take affecting ordinary mothers and fathers.
Energy bills are out of control. The Government will not touch the energy companies. It is afraid. It states it might or may talk to them. I do not know what it thinks it wants to do. Where does it want to take people? At the same time, it is announcing massive tax takes but giving nothing back. Therefore, mothers and fathers are worried about how they will pay for their children's education and pay the next week's grocery bill.
I firmly believe the Government now has an opportunity to cut out carbon tax, which would increase food prices in the shops. People cannot afford that. The Government can put an end to this codology. It is a tax take only so extra buses or whatever can be bought for the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in Dublin. The Government has to wake up. The people of rural Ireland are being hit hardest, yet the Government is sitting idly by while this is happening. I do not understand why it continues to hit people and give nothing back when it has such a massive tax take. It is not good enough at this time. I call on it to change this.
The Government is wondering why the food in the shops is dear but it is a fact that the farmers were taxed to such an extent last year that they had to raise the prices of their produce. Now, when people are complaining, it is the farmers who will be hit. They have already been asked to reduce the price of milk. It went down by 12 cent to 15 cent per litre in most co-operatives over the past three months. In talking about those co-operatives, we should note there was no regulation of the cost of fertiliser. The suppliers were not taken to task for what they were charging. Only for the suppliers in the north of Ireland bringing down the cost of fertiliser, it would not have come down here. That is God's gospel truth. There should be some regulation or some come-hither put on these fellas because they have made billions out of it. They are saying they bought the fertiliser dear last fall and must sell it off, yet they bought it the year before, in 2021, at a cheaper price and got a big price for it all last year.
Plastic for silage is €260 per roll but was €130 per roll. The rolls for the balers were €70 but are now €140. I hear an egg costs a dollar in California.
We will not be far behind them the way farmers' costs are going. Look at green diesel. It is still €1.20 per litre when it used to be 38 cent before the war and everything else the war is blamed for. It is now €1.20 and it has not come down proportionately as the price of petrol and white diesel have come down
They will start kidnapping hens in California yet at the price of an egg. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this debate to the House tonight but I have to say that Sinn Féin and all the other people gladly voted for the carbon tax. Many of them said at the time that the tax was not enough. I remember distinctly Sinn Féin Deputies saying that we were not going far enough fast enough. I remember that and I do remember things.
The Rural Independent Group firmly believes in and has always advocated for a desperately needed carbon tax exemption for farmers. Such a move would be welcome news for farmers, who are subject to price-taking economics, but it would also give hard-pressed groceries consumers a financial break via lower food prices. Taxing farmers more can only cost them more but there is also a cost to the end user or consumer. In essence, the Government should urgently consider helping businesses that are part of our agrifood ecosystem and abolishing the carbon tax would be a start.
Food processors, small shops and restaurant owners need more and better supports. By 2030, the carbon tax will have the potential to become a much more significant driver of food inflation than climate change itself. That is a fact. The policy of penalising polluters could hurt citizens more than climate change, which is the very thing we are trying to mitigate.
I neglected to say at the start that I have been operating a small shop at the side of the road for many years. I want to say something about the larger conglomerates - the mighty people who are having their price war over the price of butter and milk. I would call it a phony war because what they are trying to do is give the consumer the impression that because they are big multinationals, they have cheap produce in their shops. They are doing the consumer or the farmer no favours. All they are trying to do is line their own pockets by drawing more people in and confusing them with their false promise of reduced prices. I remember when I along with Deputy Mattie McGrath and others left here one day and bought trolley loads of vegetables. We came out of a shop down below here, went out on to the street and gave away the vegetables because the shops at the time were selling them so cheaply but it was a phony war. What did that do at the time? It hurt our producers of vegetables in the same way they are hurting the dairy men. This is wrong and we should not allow it to happen.
I suspect there is no shortage of laying hens in Kilgarvan.
If an egg is worth €1, all I can say is a hen in California will be the same price as a cow in Ireland.
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Private Members' motion. This Government finds itself in the unique position of being awash with cash - a €10 billion surplus this year rising to €65 billion over the next three years. It has more money than it knows what to do with. The Minister for Finance is apparently going to bring a memorandum to Cabinet with suggestions as to what to do with this bonanza of tax receipts, yet there is no mention of using any of this extra income to tackle fundamental problems in our society.
I will make some suggestions. We have a completely unacceptable level of poverty. These are the people most affected by the cost-of-living crisis and in particular the huge rise of 17% in food prices over the past year. The buying power of wages and social welfare payments has been cut. A survey by Barnardos on child poverty found that one in four adults looking after children were worried about being able to provide food for their children. Ten percent of those surveyed were skipping meals or eating reduced portions to ensure their children had enough and were doing so on a weekly basis, while 30% were doing it on an occasional basis. Among those out of work, 40% admitted to skipping meals or having reduced portions.
The effects of poor nutrition on children are well documented, which is why the Government has indicated that the free school meals programme in DEIS schools will be extended to all schools by 2030. Given that not all children who do not get enough nutrition go to DEIS schools, why wait another seven years to implement this programme in full? It should be implemented in all schools over the next year with the money the Minister for Finance has in his back pocket.
Today we saw the report of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which showed that one in four users of domestic gas is in arrears. This is 160,399 households. According to the chairperson of the CRU, the payment of €200 by the State for electricity had a short-term effect on reducing arrears but arrears levels are back to where they were before that payment. There are no credits for domestic gas. I and other Deputies repeatedly argued that a targeted approach to help those in need was required and it still is required, particularly for customers with gas pay-as-you-go meters. These people are particularly vulnerable to being cut off and not having access to heating. An extension of the winter fuel allowance would be much more effective in helping those struggling to heat their homes or keep their lights on. Again, the money is there and it should be done now.
In the early part of last year, there were repeated demands from the Opposition for an emergency budget to help those worst hit by the cost-of-living crisis. The Government flatly refused to do so for no good reason and told these people they had to wait until the budget in October. People had to wait until October for increases that even then did not match the rise in prices. We need action now that will make a difference. Welfare rates and the State pension should be increased by 20%. The money is there and there is no excuse. The Minister must respond with the money he has in his pocket and not put it into a fund for the future when people need it now.
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion about escalating food costs and out-of-control grocery bills. When we spoke about Europe Day, many Deputies said most people would not even know it was Europe Day, whereas everybody knows what we are talking about this evening because food inflation affects every single family. However, it has a disproportionately negative effect on those on low incomes or welfare payments and, crucially, people with disabilities, who face an extra cost of a minimum of €9,000 per annum because of their disability. They are at the sharp end of this. We know that less well-off families spend a much greater proportion of their budget on food than better-off families so it is crucifying those families.
I heard the Minister say that food inflation is beginning to dip. The retail analyst Kantar said that grocery price inflation has decreased from 16.8% in March to 16.6% in April so if your grocery bill was €80 before the inflation hike, it was €93.44 in March and decreased to €93.28 in April - a saving of 16 cent. This shows how far we need to go.
I have listened to what has been said about the retail forum. I sincerely hope the Minister can deliver genuine price reductions but I have grave concerns as to what can be achieved. First, the forum is consultative and turkeys do not vote for Christmas. Second, the proposed agricultural food regulator that is being put in place by the Government has neither the tools, i.e., robust investigative procedures, nor the legislative basis to stamp out anti-competitive practices in the agrifood supply chain. I heard the Minister mention France. Its regulator has far more teeth and far more clout than what we are proposing and we should follow its example.
While profits are expanding, the size of products is contracting. We have shrinkflation of product sizes and inflation of product prices. This is a perfect recipe for profiteering, which is what is happening.
I saw it myself last weekend. I was unpacking my groceries and I took out this pack of freezer bags. I was putting them into the press and I took out the bag that was there already which still had a few in it. I bought it about three months ago. There were 30 bags in it when I bought it three months ago and there are 22 in the new pack. You can see very clearly that is a decrease of over 25%. That is just one example and there are several more. When you add the shrinkflation to the inflation, you then get a true reflection of the problem. We need to immediately instruct the CCPC to investigate possible price gouging in the agrifood sector and to give adequate powers to the agrifood regulator.
Usually, the Minister of State gets to address the Members at the end of the debate on what we have said but because of the way tonight’s debate ran, we have heard his contribution first. He lauded the establishment of this agrifood regulator and he talked about real powers. He did not say what it will have power to do, if anything, he just spoke about real power. It reminded me a little of a time in Irish politics when there was a party which had been in government for a long time and had taken a bit of a hammering. It was kind of down on its luck and out of ideas. The slogan that it ran on was “A real plan”. Do not ask us the detail but we have a real plan. This regulator is a little like that. Yes, it has the power to set up a big office, and it will set up a big office and it will be a drain on the Exchequer and we will get suitably qualified former civil servants from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - instead of going to work for the food processors they will go in there – but it will have the power to do very little else. We have huge profits being made in the retail sector but the regulator does not have the power to determine where those profits are being made. The processors will say it is not them and they are not making any money and the retailers will say the same. They will say you should protest somewhere else because they certainly are not responsible. This regulator will have the same power as an academic in Trinity College Dublin, UCD or anywhere else, that is, just to look at the figures that are already in the public domain. That is absolutely ridiculous. It is a waste of taxpayers' money to establish it as it currently is. It has great potential but you have to give it power. Similarly, it does not have the power to determine what is the minimum cost of production of various food items in Ireland, unlike similar bodies in other European countries. This enabled a multinational retailer to come out recently to state the cost of production of milk has fallen and therefore, it was cutting its price. The cost of production of milk patently has not fallen. Foodstuffs that bovines get have rocketed in cost, as have the green diesel farmers rely on to drive their tractors to harvest, etc., and labour. Consequently, the cost of production has not fallen and this regulator will have no power to contradict claptrap like that.
My colleague, Deputy Harkin, talked about this retail forum. I wish it well but I fear what will happen is people will be brought in and it will be used to put pressure on Irish producers and not those making smaller boxes of cornflakes or imported foods. It will not be taking on the big food corporations across the world but instead, it will be used to hammer beef producers who are already barely making a margin over the cost of production and to hammer milk producers or vegetable producers, who are already being displaced by imported vegetables, and people think they are doing the world a favour.
Responses are possible. This regulator could succeed but not without amendments. The amendments have already been declined in this House but I urge the Government to think about them for the Seanad. I do not care who has introduced them but the regulator needs real powers and I specify "powers"; not just a slogan.
I am sure that on hearing that the Government will bring the big retailers around the table, many watching this debate will wonder where they had heard that before, because there is a record of the Irish people being fleeced. We saw it with the insurance companies when we heard strong words from the Government but very little action. In fact, it took Deputy Doherty, who made several attempts to bring forward legislation, to start to make a dent in this and we are still paying among the highest insurance costs in the world while the Government sits on its hands. We have seen it throughout the period of the financial crash when Irish customers were paying the highest variable mortgage interest rates in the European Union. On several occasions we heard Ministers say that they would talk to the banks but, again, very little was done, apart from Fine Gael changing the law to ensure that those same banks did not have to pay any tax for 20 years. We saw it with rents, which have gone up time and again with the Government doing nothing to stand up to those who did this. As for energy, a motion was defeated by the Government last week which would have ensured that the energy companies which have made obscene profits would be forced to pay a windfall tax and that we would put in place protections for consumers. Again, we hear that the Government will talk to the energy providers but nothing is being done to make a tangible difference to ordinary Irish families and workers. Fuel prices have been escalating over two years and very little has been done. Belatedly, as a result of Sinn Féin pressure, the Government reduced excise duty but at the same time, it increased carbon tax. Now that fuel prices have started to reduce a little, its planning on increasing the excise duty again. There is never an opportunity that the Government is not slow to face up to corporate and vested interests and big multinational corporations that are fleecing Irish workers and their families but it is never slow to penalise ordinary workers and families.
We are told that tonight’s Sinn Féin motion is being accepted by the Government. That is a welcome first step but the crucial step is implementing what the motion calls for and forcing retailers to reduce their prices in line with the fact that their input costs have seen significant reductions; forcing the CCPC to do its job, protect Irish consumers and face up to monopoly-like practices; and doing what we have urged the Government to do in respect of the agrifood regulator. As a result of the pressure from Sinn Féin and amendments it has brought forward, the Government has improved the Bill from where it started but it is nowhere near as strong as it needs to be. Those are the solutions. The Government has said it will pass the motion; now implement the solutions.
I say to the Minister of State that €1,200 a year is the reality of the increase in grocery bills faced by ordinary people. That is along with electricity at sky-high rates and rising prices in rent and mortgage repayments and the increases in carbon tax put on ordinary people who are already struggling. People are put to the pins of their collars. But at a time when people need help and when the country is awash with money, why does the Government not step in? In the last six months of 2022, Tesco’s profits in Ireland increased by 6.6%. In its 2023 budget, the Government only gave pensioners a rise of 4%. Grocery inflation is running at 17%. The Minister of State can do the maths. We can all do the maths. The Government is not giving people enough money, protection or help to tackle this crisis. That is not to mention children. What are families to do for the summer when their kids are off school and people cannot afford to pay their childminders or to put their kids into summer camp that kids would be at all day long and they cannot afford the snacks and the treats because they are struggling to put food on the table and to manage their budgets? But the Government just ignores all this. What we need is a government to stand up for the people. At the end of the day, it is the people who puts us here. If the Minister of State believes that and the Government believes that then the Government should deliver for those people. This is a brilliant country to live in if you are healthy, wealthy or a homeowner but not if you are sick, do not own your own home and do not have a good job or assets. Those are the people who are suffering. Those are the ordinary people.
I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate this evening. Workers, families, pensioners, carers, people on fixed and low incomes, and people on modest and moderate incomes are being absolutely creased. Rents have increased; they are the highest in Europe. Energy bills have increased. The numbers in arrears with their electricity and energy bills are spiralling out of control.
More than 160,000 households are now in gas arrears. Mortgage interest rates are rising and now grocery prices have risen to an unsustainable level.
I welcome that the Government is not opposing this motion but I would have preferred to have heard from its members about what they are prepared to do. They treated us to the greatest hits of stuff that they have done. They gave themselves all the pats on the backs, but what are they actually going to do? They threw around the blame when they came in here. They blamed China, Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukraine. All of these are contributing factors. All of these are beyond the Government’s control. What about what they can control? What about what they can do?
Instead, we heard from the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, that he “expects” and he “hopes” that prices will come down. We can all go home, light a candle, say a prayer and hope that prices come down, but this is the Government. It is up to it to go in and stand up for people with these retailers tomorrow and demand that prices come down. It should tell them what it will do. We heard the Minister of State come in here saying, “No, we are ruling out price caps”. Tell them what the Government will do. Do not tell us how powerless it is. Do not tell us it would love to help but it cannot. Certainly, do not tell people who are struggling to pay for their groceries what the Government says it has done for them already, because they are in dire straits now.
The reality for families is that some of them are dreading this summer. I spoke to a woman at the weekend, and she said, “Jesus when the summer comes, the kids will just eat and eat”. It is one thing to have to say no to your kids if they want to go to the zoo or if they want a trip out. That is tough. That is not nice. Yet, they have to say no to their children about food. That should spur the Government on to ensure that prices come down.
The Government is giving these retailers loads of time. It is saying, “Ah, sure, come back to us in the middle of June or towards the end of June. See what you can do, lads, and come back”. That is not good enough. That is not what people want to hear. When we say the Government is out of touch, this is what we mean. When we say the Government just does not get it, this is what we mean. Government Members say they “hope” the prices will come down and they expect that they might, but what are they going to do about it? How are they going to ensure the prices come down?
The reality for working people, as outlined by the Unite trade union, is that in real terms their wages have fallen by €76 on average per week. That is the purchasing power they now have when they are trying to buy food, nappies and whatever their family needs. They are down by €76 on average per week. Therefore, Government Members telling them that they think their wages might go up next year, the year after or at some point in the future speaks to how tone-deaf the Government is. I say this because people are struggling now. They do not think about going to the supermarket in a year's time, two years’ time or at some time when there may be a government that actually has the interests of ordinary people at heart. They have to go to the supermarket this week. They have to put stuff back. We have all seen them. I do not know if members of the Government are blind to it when they go to their own shops, but I see it in mine. People are saying to their kids, “No, put that back, no mammy won’t get that this week”. Then they get to the checkout. I worked in a retailer during the last recession and I know this only too well. You can see the signs. They will have a reasonable tot in their head of how much their groceries will cost, but they say to the woman on the checkout, “How much is it now? I will leave that back”.
Yes.
If you go to the supermarket now, right beside every single checkout there are essentials and not treats. Please do not tell people again to shop around. Jesus, they are doing that. They are shopping around. They are buying own-brand. They are put to the pin of their collar. Thus, when we say the Government is out of touch, we mean its members need to hear what people are going through. They need to understand that. They need to take action. They should not just give fine, sweet words, but take action.
Question put and agreed to.