Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has called for greater price competition among retailers following the abolition last year of the Groceries Order
Mr Ahern told a conference organised by independent retailers' group RGDATA that he would like to see increased competition between independent retailers and between the independent sector and the multiples.
He described the Groceries Order, which banned below-cost invoicing, as "a dangerous and hugely anti-competitive interference in the freedom to trade, which stifled normal competitive forces and impacted adversely on the culture and business practices of retailing".
RGDATA, whose membership ranges from small grocers to local supermarket chains, vehemently opposed the abolition of the order. Prices for items covered by the order appear to have stabilised since last March though critics say there still is not enough competition between retailers.
Mr Ahern said the order contributed directly to the demise of more than 20 per cent of small independent grocery retailers in the country and caused the market to be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer players.
"The Groceries Order also allowed suppliers rather than you, the retailer, to decide the minimum prices at which groceries could be sold to the public. For 18 years, retailers were not allowed to compete on price. Such a law could never be in the interests of healthy competition and all it achieved was to force consumers to pay higher prices for their groceries."
Prof Kevin Leyden, of West Virginia University, said Ireland was following the American model of car dependency, and this was threatening urban sprawl, a variety of health problems, a fall in social capital and the decline of small local shops.
"Mom and pop stores" had a key role to play in enabling and maintaining vibrancy in local communities. He suggested small shops that sold fresh produce should receive tax relief as a way of sustaining communities.
A massive expansion in new retail space since 2001 has not been matched by an increase in jobs, planners Fergal McCabe and Terry Durney told the conference.
The amount of retail space has increased almost three-fold but the increase in new retail jobs was only 15 per cent; this showed that bigger stores did not equate to more jobs.
New retail planning guidelines introduced over six years ago had generally worked, they said.
