THE Government is expected to announce shortly that it will not seek powers to intervene in the proposed takeover of Quinnsworth/Crazy Prices by supermarket giant Tesco.
The proposed £630 million takeover is currently being examined in Brussels by EU officials under the European mergers regulations. However, last week Irish officials from the Department of Enterprise and Employment spent some days in Brussels examining the legislation.
The aim was to see whether the legislation allowed for certain circumstances in which the Irish officials might be allowed to consider the merger. The deal was notified to the EU by Tesco and a decision is expected on May 5th.
It involves Tesco also buying the Stewarts supermarket outlets in the North as well as a chain of off licences called Wine Barrel. It is expected to be approved by the Commission.
However, the deal has caused some concern in Ireland, principally among the Opposition, the employers' lobby group IBEC, and the independent retailers group RGDATA.
They fear that Tesco will buy from existing suppliers in Britain and will wield a lot more purchasing power. Fianna Fail's spokeswoman on Enterprise and Employment, Ms Mary O'Rourke, has been a vocal critic of the deal and has called on the Government to use EU law to obtain promises from Tesco protecting Quinnsworth's existing suppliers and staff.
It is understood that the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, will meet Tesco management again shortly to discuss the conditions his Department has suggested the company should adhere to.
Tesco executives have already had discussions with several interested parties, including Mr Bruton and ISME, the small firms' lobby group. The company has promised to honour existing commitments on pay and conditions and has promised to foster and develop new and emerging suppliers through a series of measures.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)