The Irish grocers' group RGdata and the Food and Drinks Industry Ireland (FDII) have rejected the main recommendation of the Consumers Strategy Group (CSG) report which calls for the revocation of the Groceries Order.
RGdata, which represents the independent retail grocery trade, and FDII called the CSG recommendation "anti-consumer" and claim the order actually promotes competition and keeps prices low.
Rosemary GArth, director FDII
RGdata Director General, Tara Buckley, called CSG's analysis of the Groceries Order "academic and theoretical". She said RGData will justify its position, based on statistical data, during the two-month consultation process.
"The CSG Report does not contain a shred of evidence to support its claim that the Groceries Order contributes to higher prices or gives less choice for consumers." said Ms Buckley.
She said many other EU States had only just introduced similar measures, and claims the order is as necessary now as when it was introduced in 1987.
The FFII, in rejecting the call to revoke the Groceries Order, also argue the case to retain the order saying it protects the consumer.
FDII director Rosemary Garth said prices are so high in Ireland because costs are higher than almost anywhere else.
"If the Government is interested in making sure consumers get a fair deal, it should look at areas where inflation is a real problem such as Government-related charges and the protected services area." she said.
"The price of retail food has actually fallen over the last 18 months when the cost of other products and services has soared upwards. Since December 2001 the price of food eaten outside the home has risen by 19.3 per cent while food bought in shops has gone up in price by 2 per cent. Price increases for items not covered by the ban have been consistently 20 per cent higher than items that are covered." she claimed.
"It is regrettable that the ideological position of some opponents of the Groceries Order is so strong that they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge what has actually happened in the market," added Ms Garth.
The CSG report was broadly welcomed by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) but the group warned the new body must focus on areas where inflation is highest
"It is important that any new consumer body looks at where cost of living increases are coming from if it is to deliver meaningful value to consumers." said Ciaran Fitzgerald, Ibec Director of Business Sectors.
He said it will not deliver value to consumers if it does not focus on "the real sources of cost of living increases such as the Government charges in large parts of the service sector."
"The cost of goods has only gone up by 4.3% while the cost ofservices has increased by 16.3% since 2001" he claimed.
The Competition Authority, meanwhile, has welcomed the establishment of the National Consumer Agency as recommended in the CSG report.
Chairman John Fingleton said the report is a "landmark" in Irish public policy in that it is the first comprehensive report written completely from the consumer's perspective.
"There is a long legacy in this country of anti-consumer policy and culture. This legacy is frequently driven by public restrictions in what the OECD has termed an "underlying policy biases of producer over consumer interests".
"The Consumer Strategy Group Report provides a guide to building a pro-consumer environment in this country by modernising consumer protection and by removing or modifying regulation that harms consumers." He added.
Meanwhile Retail Ireland, welcomed the establishment of the new Consumer Agency but said the source of rising prices is not the retail sector but the services sector.
Retail Ireland represents department stores, supermarket groups and specialist retailers in the State. Director Torlach Denihan said the new agency "should represent a balance between the needs of the consumer and the needs of business."
"The members of Retail Ireland are compliant with regard to consumer protection legislation. They want a level playing field with adequate enforcement to ensure that the obligation to comply with consumer legislation is adhered to by all. We look to the new National Consumer Agency to ensure that this is the case," he said.
Mr Denihan said figures released by the CSO last week show that prices fell over the last year by up to 14 per cent. He said the source of rising prices in the economy is not the retail sector but rather the services sector and advised the National Consumer Agency to be conscious of this when discharging its remit.
The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) said it had concerns regarding the cost of the agency and said it should govern not just public enterprise but also public services.
CCI wants assurances that it is not going to cost anymore than the existing agencies and there would be no increases in the numbers employed in the public service.
"We are also very concerned about the State's habit of exempting itself from its own legislation and we would particularly like to see certain public sector services and commercial state body services under the ambit of this agency in terms of transparency of charges," said CCI's Head of Public Affairs Sean Murphy
On the Groceries Order, Mr Murphy said CCI will immediately embark on a consultation process with the affiliated chamber network to examine the impacts of a ban and the feasibility of introducing regulations to govern below-cost selling by large retailers, "to safeguard against predatory below-cost selling".