Well surely to stem the flow of shoppers we don’t need total parity? The gap just needs to be closed to a point where the incentive is not strong enough to encourage shoppers north.
For example you may drive a few hours up north to save €500, but you may not bother if you’ll only save €250.

Is this simply about VAT or does the minimum wage play into prices also? Presumably it has to. The minimum wage for an adult here is 8.65 euro and it is 5.80 Stg in Northern Ireland, that can feed into different prices also. The wage in Northern Ireland would have to increase to approx 7.73 Stg before prices in Northern Ireland might catch up with prices in the Republic. Or, maybe our minimum wage should be reduced to 6.50 euro and we might see our prices decrease. Retailers have to pay their staff. Given the difference in wages alone, assuming everyone working in a supermarket (over simplifying) is on minimum wage, then wage costs in the Republic are approx a third higher. Retailers want their margin, so our prices will be higher. Our economy is deflating and the minimum wage has remained static. Does that make economic sense? Maybe if we want price parity, we have to accept that we need wage parity.

Two years ago, the rate of £25 = €40 reflected a fair exchange rate (when there was still high wages, rents and assorted “overheads” to contend with). As the Sterling fell against the Euro, the 25/40 ratio remained and still remains in a lot of shops.

I find it hard to believe that the likes of M&S on Oxford Street are paying less in rent and rates than M&S in Clonmel, yet manage to charge in excess of 20% more for their prices in their Irish branches!

Maybe we need to overthrow the UK commercial power that one could compare to the British colonial power over Ireland for 800 years and strive to get the Brit (retailers) out. If all our supermarket operators and retailers were from the Eurozone, maybe we wouldn’t see the profiteering that seems to go on with Tesco et al.

As Laura has said it’s not just VAT or doing a quick currency conversion. If you went in to say Argos today and priced a TV and it cost €600 and you checked it’s UK price say £395 (€443) at to days rate saving €157. Then over night something happens on the money markets and stg goes back to .69c then you do your calculation the next morningthe UK price now goes from £395 or €572 so the stg price hasn’t changed converted price has and the saving is only €28. Now whos ripping who off. Conor it’s always easy to do just a quick conversion but ignore all the other factors which Conor you and your colleagues frequently do.
How about comparing Rent, Insurance. Commerical rates ultility charges. and then see the cost of running a business here. Also the north is part of a 60million population market we are 4million we cant expect to have the same goods and service.
example 2 the goverment palns to build a super duper enviormently power station. Cost €500million which will cost each man woman child here €125. How much would it cost in the UK or France? Ans €8.33 now are we been ripped off.
Conor stop doing currency conversion and do more reserach into all costs of being a retailer here compared to the UK and then see what the real difference is.

Maybe H&M and Zara charge more here Jonathan, but I think that may have a lot do do with the location of their premises and the dates on which they entered the Irish market. H&M and Zara are recent entrants to the market with flagship retail spaces in flagship developments. i.e. Dundrum Town Centre, Opera Lane in Cork, Athlone town centre, e.t.c. These high profile (and brand new) retail locations came with huge Celtic Tiger boom rents which feed into the prices that they charge. If you take Eurozone retailers who have been here longer (some of whom predate the latter crazy boom days) and who have the Eurozone price tags, there isn’t such a large difference in prices charged. Are you familiar with the tags I mean? They have flags on them and the price for various countries. You can hardly consider that Aldi and Lidl are overcharging Irish consumers the way Tesco like to either, despite some of their shops not being very old, I think becasue of their mostly out of town centre locations, they have been able to maximise their economies of scale and their supermarkets don’t cost as much to build as a glass and marble shrine to retail. If it wasn’t for them, Tesco might not be lowering their prices.

Laura,
Your confidence that only foreign businesses overcharge here is very interesting.
Dunnes have stores in the North as well as in other parts of the UK, and until recently €15/£10 price tags were a common sight on items of clothing. I don’t think they’re around any more, but I don’t think that’s due to any changes in pricing policy, they’ve just stopped printing dual-currency tags.
The bottom line is that they’re all at it. And the reason is a Bill Clinton thing. Because they can. The fact remains that at least until very recently, people in Ireland literally didn’t care how much they paid for anything. It was a complete circus. Let’s hope that’s a thing of the past.

My story…
A couple of years ago, Eddie Hobbs brought us ‘Rip off ireland’. Those in power told us to grow up and shop around.
So i did.
I go north for my household stuff. I go online for a lot things (books, tech stuff, holidays). I go the US for clothes and pharmaceutical stuff. I go to mainland Europe for smokes and some drink. And guess what? Even including the cost of travel and the time it takes – I save an absolute fortune. Enough to save for a rainy day that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to, enough for an extra holiday a year.
And now, the country is in trouble. So those in power tell us to be patriotic. Shop at home they say. Pay the inflated prices charged here. Contribute more vat to the coffers so they can shovel it to the banks or to their good mates in the overpaid public service. Will I do it? Will I f**k.
There are some costs i can’t avoid (apart from the 50% they’re taking from my salary). I can’t avoid overpriced and steadily increasing healthcare costs. I can’t avoid bin charges and motor tax. But from the 50% of my salary that I’m left with, I do have power. I have the power to vote with my wallet not to pay the over inflated prices we have here. I have the power not to contribute voluntarily to the billions they’re shoving into Anglo Irish, or in the form of underwritten guarantees through NAMA or to the billions they wasted with benchmarking.
Am I angry about it? No. I’m refreshed. Because even though they’re taking more money off me, I’m saving more than ever by shopping around (abroad).
They ‘listen’ to us every five years when they look for our votes. If they listened a bit harder, they would know that we’re telling them something now. We’re telling it on every mile up the Belfast road, with every click of a mouse after we enter our credit card details, with every bag of extraordinarily cheap labelled fashion i cram into my bag in Macy’s or Century 21 in New York.
I don’t expect them to listen. I don’t really expect them to change. I don’t care. I have power over the 50% of my money they leave me with, and I’ll exercise that power the best way I can to make or save money for me and my family.
When the whole of Ireland fully wakes up. When the vast majority take the paths that I and many others are already taking – then, maybe, they’ll listen and do something to change. Maybe they’ll let Anglo go to the wall. Maybe they’ll stop bailing out bondholders who gambled with investments in the Irish banks and should have lost but didn’t because we’re going to bail them out. Maybe they’ll reduce the ridiculous wages and pensions they’ve let the unions talk them into. Maybe.. well, maybe I don’t care what they do, because I’m busy. Busy squeezing every last cent of value I can out of the wages they leave me with.

SO BJP you wonder why your salary is been cut by 50%. Spending all your money outside the state. This is short term gain for long tern pain

Alan,
I completely disagree.
By doing nothing, you are condoning a system which rips us all off.
By voting with your feet (wallet) you are making a statement. If enough people do this, then the powers that be might finally wake up and do something about it.

Alan,
FYI, if it were suggested that water charges and local taxes be introduced here, I would be in favour of it. Every other country has them, and so should we. That way, local authorities would have a tax base (i.e. authority) and there would be money for the upkeep of our woeful water infrastructure. They were only abolished here by FF as a blatant election-buying tactic, and the people here were stupid enough to be takin in by it.
I pay a substantial amount of money in tax here, and I would gladly pay more if I thought the government had the cop-on to spend that money wisely.

Hello all, I have read all your comments and find it absolutely amazing to think the consumer in Ireland still thinks the retailers in Ireland are ripping you off. Here are a few facts that will give you some idea as to why prices are higher in Ireland than the UK. The figures I will give you are the differences between both economies and are only applicable in Ireland in most cases.
Vat is still 3.5% lower in the Uk for the standard rate and 5.5% lower in the UK for the lower rate.
Minimum wage in Ireland is 30% higher.
Rates and rents are between 55% and 65% higher in Ireland.
Utilities such as electricity and telecommunications are 35% higher in Ireland.
Waste and refuse disposal costs 45% more in Ireland.
The employer in Ireland has to pay a tax called employer PRSI on top of the gross salary per employee. This averages out at just under 10% and is not applicable in the UK or any other EU state.
These are some figures for yopu to mull over. If you think the Irish retailers are still ripping you off then you obviously do not know how to do the calculations correctly. It basically boils to one fact. If the running costs and margins were the same in each economy Ireland would work out about 25% cheaper than the UK. Also I would like to point out one other item everyone seems to miss. This pound for euro scheme which the retailers in the North seem to be fond of using makes me wonder how high are the margins in the UK. Giving a pound for every euro is the same as giving about 10% discount off your goods. If this was to happen in Ireland we would see unemployment rise to over 2 million as the majority of retailers would go bankrupt. So the next time you make a statement about retailers in Ireland ripping off the consumer ask yourself why is the retailer paying such high costs to run their business? You will notice the only people shouting about retailers ripping off the consumer all work for the government. They are merely deflecting the blame away from the government whom are really ripping off the consumer by ripping off all businesses in Ireland.

There is a fundamental flaw in your Tesco/Sainsbury comparison. The budget was on the 9th of December 2009 and excise duty was reduced immediately. Therefore the effect was already in prices at the end of December. The VAT rates in both jurisdictions changed on 1 Jan 2010.

alex,
At last someone with a bit of sense. I have challenged conor on a number of times to do the excerise of the figures you have given. But this wouldn’t be good for a consumer champion. Everyone believes just sees Stergling-Euro a bit of VAt and and compare prices and ignore all the other factors. Maybe now Conor will do it.
Carolines comment about rent and rates in oxford street compared to Clonmel how about footfall. Serveral million londoners and Tourists on top of that. Of course thing are going to cheaper as your sales are higher. And thats another point commentors ignore.

I’m delighted that Conor is still pursuing this subject. I’m constantly upset by the much higher prices in the Republic. I’m also a public-sector worker, which means I’ve taken around an 18% pay reduction in the past year or so. I have so little disposable income left I do most of my shopping in the North or, when realistic, anywhere else except the Republic (even allowing for petrol or postage, I save more than 20%). I’ll continue to do so until I see value for money here.

@Alex it’s a bit disingenuous to blame all the overheads, wages, vat differences, utilities etc. Those rates were around two years ago when the exchange rate for sterling to euro prices didn’t include a 20%+ mark up like it does now. Why should I pay €45 for an item with a £30 price tag?

The price difference between Ireland and the UK is outrageous. I placed an order with Laura Ashley in the Republic for a piece of furniture; full price is £250 (€281) online but €400 in the Republic. During the sale the online price is £157.50 (€177) but in the Republic it is €252.