Inflation overall has been slowing in recent months but there can be little doubt that the cost-of-living crisis is still very much real.
It is perhaps most real when it comes to food prices. A pound of butter is €1.10 more expensive than a year ago, the Central Statistics Office said this week, for example, while two litres of milk costs 27 cent more than in June 2024.
Therefore, it was reasonable that the Dáil would hold a debate on supermarket profits this week.
These debates tend to follow a pattern, whatever the topic. Opposition deputies indignantly question Government policy and essentially ask what those in charge are “going to do about it”. Government ministers reply that they are already doing lots of things to fix the problem. And so it goes.
Ireland can lead Europe in the next generation of inclusive capitalism
‘I invested heavily in a restaurant a few years ago and it went on fire in its second week. That still stings’
Is there any point in keeping my Goodbody Stockbrokers account open?
Davy seeks measure to support house building in budget
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty can be an especially strong Dáil performer, and can be very convincing in whatever he is saying. Yet he and his party colleagues appear to have been poorly prepared for this debate, or at least poorly advised.
“The stock prices of supermarkets and the large retailers and food companies have been going through the roof,” he told the chamber. “They have been skyrocketing in recent times. Tesco’s stock is up 30 per cent in the last year. United Natural Foods Inc., the owners of SuperValu, saw its stock price rise by 60 per cent in the last year.”
Sinn Féin’s Máire Devine followed soon after, noting an increase in “SuperValu’s stock by nearly 61 per cent.”
Paul Donnelly, another Sinn Féin TD – notice a pattern here – later told the Dáil that “United Natural Foods, owners of SuperValu, reported a turnover exceeding €5 billion for the first time, with profits of €104 million”.
There’s just one problem here. The SuperValu owned by United Natural Foods is a US supermarket chain that is not connected at all with SuperValu in Ireland. The Irish chain is owned by Cork-based Musgrave.
This is basic stuff. Google “supervalu owner” and the correct answer is clear.
As anyone in media knows, getting one fact wrong can discredit an entire story. The same can be said for politics. Whatever the validity of the overall point Doherty, Devine or Donnelly were making, they showed that, at best, they weren’t read up on what they were talking about.
The price of food is a serious topic, it deserves to be taken seriously. Or, at the very least, be subject to a Google search.
Cantillon, named after Irishman Richard Cantillon who was known as the “Father of Political Economy”, is a column in which Irish Times business journalists offer analysis and comment on business and economic issues of the day.
