Simon Coveney will have to be the good cop. Well, obviously.
And Neale Richmond will be the bad cop. It would not be unusual to see Neale walking around Leinster House with a black eye or a limp. He plays rugby in his spare time.
A “tighthead prop” apparently. Front row of the scrum. Exactly where the Minister of State pledges to be on Wednesday when the Retail Forum lines out at his request in the Kildare Street headquarters of the Department of Enterprise and Trade.
The forum has 36 members – 22 drawn from retail representative bodies and major retail chains and 14 from public sector and academic bodies. “I am delighted to see that the vast majority of retailers, beyond those who ordinarily attend, have confirmed their attendance,” Neale confirmed on Tuesday, so it should be quite the scrum.
We are not sure if Neale’s line-minister, Simon Coveney, will be present. Perhaps he will make a conciliatory appearance near the end with a bucket and sponge if all goes to plan for his burly Minister of State with responsibility for the retail sector.
This is a special, one-off meeting, and the junior minister has his sights set firmly on the big hitters in the grocery business. For the last few days Neale has been on a media blitz, promising to soften the cough of greedy grocers amid growing claims of price gouging in the supermarket aisles.
Of course, as a seasoned frontrow prop the TD for Dublin Rathdown will have heard all about the practice of gouging.
The Dáil, meanwhile, heard that prices are through the roof and many people are struggling to pay basic household bills. Food inflation is considerably higher than general inflation, which has gone down a couple of points recently.
Mary Lou McDonald said the spiralling cost of groceries is “the latest hit in the cost-of-living storm” to buffet hard-press consumers already facing huge energy costs. “It’s an absolutely staggering situation,” gasped the Sinn Féin leader, pressing on valiantly despite finding herself staggered to a shocking degree on a twice-weekly basis in the chamber.
For a change Taoiseach Leo Varadkar did not dispute her level of stagger, disappointed that living costs remained high when inflation was slowing down. He indicated his Government would not oppose a Sinn Féin motion on cutting food prices and investigating “possible price gouging” by supermarkets.
But there is a glimmer of hope. Leo is sending Minister Richmond in, studs up, to sort things out. If there is any gouging going on he will tackle it and then pass on “a very clear message” from Government.
“We are making it very clear to the retailers, the big supermarkets, the shops and also to the energy and gas companies: You put prices up when your costs went up; now your costs are coming down we expect you to bring down prices.”
And if they don’t?
Well, erm, they will take a very dim view and Neale will take a very dim view and he is a tighthead prop.
Will prices ever come back down?
Ivana Bacik was glad the Government is not opposing Sinn Féin’s cost-of-living motion. And is there any chance the Taoiseach might come into the Dáil next week to report on how big Neale got on with the Retail Forum? A blow-by-blow account would be most welcome.
Deputy Bacik also mentioned that while prices for food and basic commodities were on the rise, workers were getting short changed. She singled out Tesco for changing the hours of staff in packing and food delivery, leading to cuts in their wages.
“At every side: wages, food prices and the cost of housing we are seeing working people being squeezed for the sake of profit,” said the Labour leader, wondering if workers will have a voice at Wednesday’s Retail Forum. “It’s time this Government stood up to big business,” she declared, momentarily forgetting she was addressing the leader of Fine Gael.
Richmond stepped in to answer and explained that he meets workers’ representatives every week and he has been discussing the rights of retail workers with their union. Not only that but Coveney engages with them too.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns didn’t sound like she has faith in this emergency convening of the Retail Forum achieving much. She pointed out that energy companies were “simply ignoring” Government calls to lower prices and it was likely that the supermarkets would do the same on Wednesday.
“You’re going into those talks without a very crucial piece of information,” she advised the Taoiseach. “None of the major supermarket groups publish their profits for their operations here. They tell us they’re not profiteering, but they refuse to come clean about their profit margins.”
At this crunch summit with the Retail Forum would the Government ask the retail giants “to finally come clean about their profits here?”
The Minister for State jumped in again for his team captain.
Neale is very much “looking forward” to the meeting. There will be a “frank exchange”.
“Direct questions” will be asked. “We will be making it quite clear that where input costs have gone down, we expect to see prices go down at the supermarket tills for consumers as well.” There is “an awful lot” to be discussed.
And will he ask about disclosing those profits?
“Yes.”
Good luck with that.
Later thoughts turned to the banks which, like the supermarkets, are awash with money.
[ The Irish Times view on grocery prices: Government will struggle to find answersOpens in new window ]
The question came from an unlikely source – the Government benches – and it had the distinct bang of a plant (of the non-herbaceous variety) off it. The questioner was Richard Bruton, a former Fine Gael minister for enterprise and trade. With interest rates on the rise and borrowers coming under severe pressure, he thought it “very noticeable” that the net margins of the banks were also growing significantly.
One bank’s stock jumped in value by 4 per cent in just one day.
“Would it be timely for the Government to review consumer protections and to sit down with the Central Bank, Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to review consumer protection in financial services?” wondered Richard. What do you think, Taoiseach?
Leo thought Richard’s point was “very valid” and hadn’t he only discussed this very topic with the Minster for Finance?
The banks shouldn’t be using interest rate hikes to “dramatically” increase their profits and if increases were passed on to mortgage holders then they should also be passed on to depositors. “I’m not sure that has been happening. It might be timely for us to do exactly that,” replied Leo.
Thanks for asking.
