The President of the Workers' Party has called for the introduction of price controls ona range of  essential household items inluding basic foodstuffs and fuel.  Speaking to constituents at a meeting in Dublin Mid-West on 3^rd June said that there had been dramatic increases in the cost of many essentials recently, which was hitting families very hard.

"The sound of silence is deafening from the political establishment regarding the ever-rising cost of living which impacts most severely on the most vulnerable in our society".

"Food and fuel prices are rising daily and all our government and the tame Consumer Agency, which it established with no teeth, can say is to shop around.  They seem to forget if you are a pensioner, a single parent or a person on social welfare it is extremely difficult, to say the least, to shop around when one has no transport or little money to pay for the transport", said Mr. Finnegan.

"Lack of competition among the major supermarkets has been proven.  They are operating a price fix between themselves and are ripping off the consumer in the process.  The scandal that has been exposed whereby they are not passing on the now major difference between sterling and the Euro is another example of their greed". 

"The statement by Sir Terry Leahy, CEO, Tesco on Friday 30^th May really takes the biscuit when he described the surge in oil prices as a “speculative bubble”.  He went on to say that he did not think the rate of food price increases will continue into the long term.  For workers and their families it has lasted too long.  For people like Sir Terry who has a salary of over €2 million he is well cushioned against any price increases unlike the vast majority who have to struggle on a minimum wage".

The Workers’ Party makes the following demands which the government can take without any major difficulty:-

• Introduce price control on essential items of food, bread, milk, vegetables, baby food, and fuel including heating oil, petrol and diesel.  Let us remember that every time the cost of fuel goes up the government through VAT of 21% also increases its income.  A little over a year ago diesel could be bought for 0.75 cents a litre.  Now it costs €1.40/1.45  a litre which has doubled the government’s take on VAT.                 
•  A further measure the government could take is to reduce the VAT rate of 21% on essential items such as fuel to 12.5% and so give much needed relief to hundreds of thousands of taxpayers.
• Finally, the government can take immediate action to introduce a windfall tax on banks and other financial institutions and on oil companies.

"These measures, the Workers’ Party are convinced, would go some way to relieve the burden on people and also give the government much needed revenue for major development projects which at present are under threat because of the crisis in capitalism", said the Workers' Party President.