What's the story with the cost of dying?

While it is increases in the cost of living that attract most consumer anger, the cost of dying is equally worthy of attention. According to a survey carried out by the Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI) 10 years ago the cost of a funeral in Ireland was anywhere between £767 (€975) and £1,475 (€1,870) depending on the location. Today, a similarly modest funeral in Dublin will cost at least €4,000 with many estimates putting the final bill at closer to €6,500. While prices are not so severe outside the capital, funerals will still end up costing anywhere between €2,000 and €3,500.

The slightest increase in the price of a pint of milk or stout is enough to generate acres of newsprint and light up the Livelineswitchboard, but the fact that funeral costs appear to have more than doubled in a decade does not attract so much attention. Whether this is because funeral stories make for depressing reading or because the recently bereaved do not like to complain about inexplicably high costs out of respect for their loved ones is difficult to say for certain.

However, Dublin Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell has succeeded in highlighting the issue. For more than a year he has been complaining loudly about the high cost of Irish funerals. He was prompted to act after a constituent told him about a €7,000 bill she was given after burying her mother. Outraged, Mitchell placed ads in several papers seeking similar stories and more people came forward, convincing him that some extremely vulnerable people were being taken advantage of by Dublin funeral directors.

"You do not need to spend €7,000 on a funeral but we are growing used to spending a fortune on what is essentially a wooden box and a taxi ride. If there was proper competition in Dublin than perhaps the bereaved would not be paying through the nose," he told PriceWatch.

He believes one of the main factors driving up costs is the lack of new entrants into the market and the division of much of the business in Dublin between a small number of families. Many of the families trade under different names which "creates a false sense of competition," Mitchell says. "There is no real competition in Dublin." He adds that two funeral parlours sitting on the same street can often have the same owner.

He has called on the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority to be more proactive in examining how businesses are run in Dublin and he wrote to both bodies last year, but has been disappointed by their failure to act.

The Irish Association of Funeral Directors has consistently rejected Mitchell's claims that they run a closed shop and describe his accusations that some directors take advantage of vulnerable people as completely false. The association has pointed out, not unreasonably, that its members do a very difficult job and that many work with very tight margins.

For its part, the Competition Authority says it replied to Mitchell's queries asking if he had further evidence suggesting the industry in Dublin was in breach of competition legislation but has not had any further correspondence.

As anyone who has suffered a bereavement will testify, shopping around for the best deals when it comes to a funeral is unrealistic. The last thing people overwhelmed by grief want to do is haggle about prices. This is why Mitchell believes the NCA should lobby for greater transparency in the industry and the Health Services Executive should establish an independent funeral costs advisory service. He also believes planning restrictions, which prevent more funeral parlours opening, need to be examined.

AS IT STANDS, members of the Irish Association of Funeral Directors are required by its code of practice to discuss costs when arrangements are being made, unless those responsible for the arrangements say they would prefer not to.

Funeral costs are split roughly 60/40 between director's charges which cover the coffin, embalming, removal, hearse, pall bearers and other transport; and payments known as disbursements that cover services such as grave purchase, grave opening, cremation fees, newspaper announcements and flowers.

According to Fanagans Funeral Directors which has up-to-date information on its websites, its charges can vary from €1,600 to €6,900 and upwards, depending on the coffin selected and range of other services required, while disbursements range between €1,750 and €7,000.

The price of a plot is the most significant element of the cost in Dublin, with graves being sold for as much as €5,000. The rising cost of graves has contributed to the growth in the number of cremations taking place. Up to 30 per cent of funerals in Dublin, or about 2,000 services a year, now involve cremations. It is a far less expensive option: a typical cremation will cost about €400-€450 compared with a burial costing €1,500 plus another €700 for opening the grave.

The Consumer Association of Ireland, through its Consumer Choicemagazine, has long been tracking the rising cost of funerals in Ireland. According to the CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell, "At the heart of it is the reality that there are very few consumers who will complain about high prices, which means that any problems that exist will continue".

Jewell says people should be conscious of what they are being asked to pay for. "There are times when people need to ask why prices are so outrageous. We are seen as a country where people have a lot of money and are not willing to complain in this area so this has allowed prices to creep up.

"Most people want to go with the best that is on offer and without a doubt the funeral directors put prices at the highest the market can bear and then sometimes higher than that." Not all of them of course. Jewell accepts that running a funeral parlour is a very difficult job and that there are those who have adopted best practices when it comes to charges and want to raise standards across the industry. "There are those in the profession who are proud of what they do and who don't fleece people," he says.

He believes regulations should be introduced to give "the bereaved a little space to choose the coffin and decide on cars and wreaths".