The EEC and the Consumer in the Republic of Ireland. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 145 1980

Ross, Miceal (1980) The EEC and the Consumer in the Republic of Ireland. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 145 1980. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

In my approach to the topic I wish to be somewhat more general than merely considering the aspect of food prices although I intend to give these special attention. My comments must necessarily be brief and in many cases tentative as I am currently engaged in a study of the impact of the EEC on Ireland, both North and South. In making this study I have had the support of the Committee for Social Research in Ireland whose offices are located here in Belfast. My first point is to restate that a consumer is generally a producer viewed from a specific aspect. The producer's concern is to obtain income and the consumers to get the most value from this income. In a period of inflation the consumer's standard of living will rise if the general price rise is slower than the rise in his income as a producer. In the Republic this has been true for large segments of the population though inevitably there have been the usual victims of inflation - frequently pensioners and lenders. Any consideration of the EEC's impact on the consumer must be supplemented by an investigation of the Community's impact on the income which he or she has to spend and this is something to which I hope to return briefly later on.

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