The lack of a strong consumer lobby has contributed significantly to a situation where consumers believe - with justification - that they are being overcharged for pretty much everything, often in a systematic way.
In its unpublished report, the Consumer Strategy Group deliberately avoids such emotive terms as "rip-off Ireland" but it is unequivocal in its conclusion that the high prices endemic in the Republic cannot be explained away by high business costs alone. This conclusion is reached on the basis of what the group claims is the most extensive research into consumer issues ever carried out in the State.
The group believes that the solution to the problem lies largely in our own hands. It argues that a strong consumer culture is the best protection against profiteering, and that the role of the Government is to build a framework which will foster such a culture. A number of proposals in this regard are set out by the group, foremost of which is the establishment of a national consumer agency which would be an advocate for the consumer. Other initiatives are also detailed, including revoking the Groceries Order banning below cost selling and further liberalisation of licensing laws. The sale of cheaper medicines would be promoted and the dual role of the State as both the major supplier of public transport and the regulator ended.
The problem for the Government is that implementing these proposals - which are the core of the report - will pit it against powerful vested interest. The Groceries Order is seen by small and medium sized retailers as a vital protection against predatory pricing by the multiples while publicans cannot be expected to welcome further competition. Equally, drugs companies will not favour the promotion of cheaper generic versions of the products they have spent millions, if not billions, developing, while the unions will defend their hegemony over CIÉ and its subsidiaries. All these groups have linkages to the current administration and have shown themselves adept at exerting influence in the past.
Starting a protracted campaign on so many fronts is not a situation any government wants to find itself in with an election on the horizon. It is certainly not something to be undertaken by a Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment who is, to say the least, somewhat distracted by issues relating to his previous ministry.
Such considerations have no doubt figured in the Government's reluctance to progress the report which has been in its final draft form for some weeks and when it does come to Cabinet risks being long fingered.
Micheál Martin has yet to put his stamp on Enterprise Trade and Employment. Championing the agenda set out by the Consumer Strategy Group would be an opportunity for him to do so, requiring the kind of resolve with which he introduced the ban on smoking in the workplace. It remains to be seen whether he will rise to the challenge.