Abolition of the Groceries Order will not disadvantage farmers, only those who want to sell goods below the net invoice price, the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society annual conference was told yesterday.

Declan Purcell, director of the Competition Authority's advocacy division, also said it was likely that extra powers to be given to the authority under the new legislation would lead to a special division to deal with the food retail sector.

Mr Purcell addressed farmers' concerns that they could be driven out of business by retailers seeking to drive down prices by assuring them that the authority would investigate any complaints if they involved breaches of the competition law.

"However, we must have evidence to back up any such claims," he said, adding there would be a focus on the retail sector.

"Competition law can be used to the advantage of farmers and companies.

"Farmers and others can raise objections to proposed mergers by processors that they believe will damage competition," he said.

Mr Purcell said the Groceries Order had kept food prices higher here than in other European countries by as much as €500 a year.

The problem was not at the producer or processing level, but at the retail level, he said.

He said processors also had the right to object to mergers and he added that they could make objections to what they would see as abuse of dominance down the food chain - if they have evidence.

"We always welcome complaints that bring to light anti-competitive behaviour that harms either the consumer or the competition process," he said.

Mr Purcell, whose organisation was accused of heavy-handed tactics against farmers during the 2002 IFA blockade when homes and offices were raided, said he made no excuse for the using the statutory powers which the authority has been given under the Competition Act.

However, he denied to John Bryan of the Irish Farmers' Association that the authority had tapped telephones at that time. He said the authority had no legal right to do that.

Mr Purcell said it was not the case that the authority had not used its powers to investigate allegations by farmers that there was price-fixing in the meat processing sector.

He said there was currently a case being heard in the High Court involving BID beef slaughtering houses.

The company is planning to consolidate and reduce the beef slaughtering capacity, to which the Competition Authority had objected on the grounds that this breaches Section 4 of the Competition Act.

He said the authority also had concerns about the issue of the proposed Animal Remedies Regulations which would strengthen the controls on vets' ability to write prescriptions.

"Recently the Tánaiste Mary Harney announced she wanted to liberalise, in certain circumstances, the issuing of prescribing rules relating to humans.Whereas, with animals it seems to be the other way round and we are going to see a more restrictive regime.

"A bit of joined-up government, I think, might be the answer to that," he said.