Oireachtas committee to probe accuracy of pricing claims
31/08/2005 - 09:06:09The Oireachtas committee on enterprise and small business is due to question officials from the Central Statistics Office today about the accuracy of data on the cost of living in Ireland.
The meeting follows disagreement over CSO figures on food prices that were used by the Competition Authority to lobby for the abolition of the Groceries Order.
The authority claimed the figures showed that the order, which bans retailers from selling goods at below cost-price, was keeping food prices artificially high.
The Oireachtas committee has already recommended that the order be retained in order to protect small retailers from being put out of business by large supermarkets.
