There has been some discussion of comments made by Ned O’Keffe, FF TD for Cork East, over at politics.ie and True Economics. Details of what he actually said are below the fold.
I find it difficult to disagree with Constantin Gurdgiev’s assesment
This is either delusional or clinically mad. And it comes from a sitting TD. In fact, the statement is so historically, economically and socially illiterate, Mr O’Keeffe deserves no comment on this blog other than one word: FRIGHTENING!A local Cork newspaper reported –
Deputy O’Keeffe believes that the UK supermarket chain has been very negative for Ireland since buying out Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices in 1997.
“What has Tesco offered us since they came over to Ireland?” said Deputy O’Keeffe.
“We were far better off as when we had Quinnsworth or Crazy Prices in operation in this country and since they were purchased by Tesco it’s had a very negative impact on the retail sector and food suppliers in every part of Ireland.
“I think we would be better off if Tesco were to leave Ireland altogether. Their absence from the Irish market would be taken up by other supermarkets who would fill the gap and hopefully it would lead to less exploitation of Irish food suppliers.
“They’ve done enough damage to the sector and I really wish they would leave Ireland before they cause more Irish food suppliers to go under, resulting in more job losses.
We’ve already seem the damage that foreign banks have done to Ireland and how the Irish banks were forced to make up for their mistakes. Well the same could happen in the retailing sector with the foreign retailers such as Tesco ruining the Irish supermarket industry and putting thousands of people out of work around the country”, Deputy O’Keeffe concluded.
So there you have it. It’s not about protecting consumers and ensuring they are able to access goods and services at the best price, but rather it’s about enabling Irish producers to charge whatever they wish for their products. Is it any wonder Ireland is so expensive?
No bio, some books worth reading – The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – Matt Ridley .
Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance -Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Mihm
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
