Soaring mark-ups costing €1,300m per year - FG

Soaring mark-ups on products in shops and bars are costing the Irish consumer €1,300 million each year, Fine Gael said today.

Citing analysis of Central Statistic Office figures the party's spokesman on finance Mr Richard Bruton said the mark-ups were costing the average Irish household more than €1,000 each year.

A mark-up is the amount added to the cost price of an item when calculating the selling price.

The CSO figures show that between 1997 and 2001 the cost of consumer goods and services swung from being 3 per cent cheaper in Ireland than in the euro zone, to being 15 per cent dearer.

The figures, as presented by Mr Bruton, show bars had a 94.4 per cent mark-up on their products in 2001, an increase of almost 20 per cent since 1997. Hotels had a 79.9 per cent mark-up, an increase of 4.7 per cent in the four-year period, the figures show.

Mr Bruton said price competition needed to be urgently restored to the entire retail sector.

He called for an "urgent, independent examination" of the causes of rising mark-ups and the "failure to pass on savings, now prevalent throughout the retail sector."

Other measures proposed by Mr Bruton include:

• more rigorous price display requirements including an obligation to show the equivalent price 12-months ago.

• a "name and shame" campaign on excess prices and a regular Price League.

• a clear commitment by Government to curb price increases of its own making.

"The authority of this Government to confront the 'rip-off' culture has become seriously compromised by the fact that the Government itself is responsible for almost 60 per cent of present inflation," Mr Bruton said.

"The Government have talked tough about strong competition policies and curbing inflation, but we are still waiting for one initiative or action deriving from the special cabinet meeting on competitiveness," he concluded.