Groceries Order decision due next month - Martin

The Government will decide by the end of October if it will lift the ban on below-cost selling contained in the controversial Groceries Order.

Speaking during the first session of the Dáil after the summer recess this afternoon, Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Micheal Martin said he believed the Order's retention was "not tenable."

"I do think that we are dealing with an Order that was introduced a long time ago, and I think the situation has changed quite dramatically since.

"To me and from my observations and analysis of the situation, the retention of the existing Groceries Order is not tenable going forward."

He told the House the Government would need a "reasonable period" to decide upon any recommendation he would bring to Cabinet. "I suggest the end of October is a reasonable timeline to do that", he added. "I think it was important that we would allow a two-month public consultation programme."

Mr Martin said his Department had received 521 submissions on the issue of the Groceries Order. Some 398 favoured the retention of the order, 153 favoured the scrapping of it, while 10 people sought amendments or raised other issues.

He said 44 per cent of submissions came from the "symbol groups", such as Centra, Spar, Londis, or Mace. Retailers represented the majority who favoured the Order's retention, while members of the public represented the majority in favour of revoking it.

"We want to avoid any abuse of dominance by any particular player but we do want to bring more competition into the market," Mr Martin added.

Fine Gael's Phil Hogan said there was a "need for clarity and a need for an early decision on this matter" and welcomed the fact that a decision would be made by the end of next month.