Consumers are still getting a raw deal in many areas of Irish life, as demonstrated by this week's series on consumer issues in The Irish Times. Food prices are on average 25 per cent higher than the EU average, while many branded goods are almost twice as dear in Ireland as in Germany or the Netherlands, research carried out for the series showed. Meanwhile, there is little variation in price between the main retailers, leading some to conclude there is a lack of competition in the market.
In recent years, there have been improvements in many areas of public services, but taxpayers' money is still being squandered all too frequently on white elephant projects. Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell has specifically pointed to the need to deal with under-performance in the Civil Service.
We are all consumers, and this may be one of the reasons why consumer politics are weak in Ireland. With no sectional interest to defend or attack, the more focused voices of producers and retailers dominate. Consumer activism has come to be seen as a means for increasing competition in society, particularly in markets dominated by State-owned companies, rather than a bottom-up assertion of the rights of ordinary citizens in their dealings with business and the State. The left is particularly suspicious of consumer politics, and many trade unionists see in it a Trojan horse for neo-liberal ideology.
And yet if Labour, in its current search for a new political meaning, wants to reconnect with voters, what better way to do this than by championing the rights of citizens, many of them vulnerable pensioners or young people, who are paying too much at the checkout or on utility bills? With so little dividing the main parties on ideology, shouldn't politicians be placing greater emphasis on the efficient management of taxpayers' money and the creation of genuine choice for consumers?
Profligacy has been the almost inevitable consequence of the wealth created by the Celtic Tiger. But with signs that the boom is ending, it behooves us now to take greater responsibility for our financial affairs. Simply changing a mortgage provider can save a householder thousands of euro each year, for example, and switching business has never been easier. Shopping around can produce significant savings in certain circumstances - you can cut your food bills by 20 per cent, for example, by not shopping in certain convenience stores.
There are signs of improvement. New consumer legislation has come into force which increases protection in many areas. The EU is making strides towards the creation of a single market for consumers. The internet offers new opportunities for getting better value for money, while consumers are, finally, showing signs of greater assertiveness.
With so many sectoral regulators and the new National Consumer Agency now operating, this should be a bright new era for consumers. The challenge is to ensure the reality matches the rhetoric.