The Labour Party has called for Ireland's consumer watchdog to investigate supermarket prices as it accused major corporations of "potential price gouging" and "profiting" from the cost-of-living crisis.
Labour Enterprise spokesperson Ged Nash also called for the Government to introduce price caps on certain goods, arguing that it has enough money to introduce further measures.
Speaking in Leinster House on Tuesday morning, Mr Nash said that updates from the stability programme show that Ireland is in a good financial position and is likely to have "record-breaking income tax levels" in 2023.
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He argued that "far too many people are being left behind" as he accused supermarkets and large companies of collecting large profits.
It comes at a time when customers are reporting rising prices on supermarket shelves.
Mr Nash explained: "The ECB said very clearly a couple of weeks ago that one of the predominant reasons why inflation remains so high is because of rapid levels of profit-taking by large corporations.
"The reality is that far too many big corporations, like major supermarket chains, are involved in obtaining supernormal [and] hyper normal profits. They are effectively profit taking and that is increasing the strain on the economy.
"It is the ordinary punters across Ireland who are paying the price for that at the till in terms of higher prices for bread, high prices for milk, high prices for eggs, products that are actually produced here.
"In our view, this needs to be investigated by the Consumer Competition Protection Commission (CCPC).
"I wrote last year to the [Oireachtas] Enterprise Committee and I asked them at that stage to engage with the CCPC on the question of price controls.
"The 2007 Consumer Protection Act provides for the ability for a Government to introduce price controls when certain thresholds are met under extraordinary circumstances.
"We are experiencing extraordinary circumstances at the moment.
"In Greece, for example, the Government brought together the main supermarket chains and they agreed last November to introduce a form of price controls on 51 staple products on the supermarket shelves.
"No such action has been taken by the Irish Government and it is time now that the CCPC investigated this issue, report to Government very, very quickly and advise Government as to what they can do."
Mr Nash said that there is "evidence" that some major corporations are "profiting" from the high prices and are not passing on drops in the price of electricity and labour to consumers.
He also stated that some international supermarket chains do not publish their Irish profits.
Mr Nash added: "[Price caps have] never been done before. We live in extraordinary times and it is time for extraordinary measures to be considered."
The Irish Mirror has contacted the CCPC for comment.
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