Solbes denies Ireland is 27 dearer than France

Date: 03/10/02

By Peter Chapman

THE European Commission has dismissed a study that shows the cost of living and working in Ireland is nearly a third more than in France and portrays the Irish as hard drinkers.

A report by retail trade publishers Retail Intelligence found the cost difference between Ireland and France amounted to 27 for a typical basket of groceries.

But as Irish voters prepare to give their verdict on the Nice Treaty, Pedro Solbes, the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, insisted the research was misleading.

He estimates that the Celtic Tiger is at most only 6 dearer than France.

Solbes claimed that the firm's statistics, based on the prices of 40 goods, was too small to get a true picture, and that the researchers blundered by comparing prices only in up-scale St Tropez and booming Dublin.

'These places are unlikely to be representative of the two countries,' he said.

Worse, Solbes said the researchers had assumed that Irish consumers spend 41 on food and non-alcoholic beverages and 44 on alcohol.

In fact, said the commissioner, the Irish people spend only 14 of their income on food and non-alcoholic drinks.

And despite their hard-drinking image, they spend just 3 on alcohol.

Solbes said a preliminary report by EU statistical agency Eurostat showed that Ireland was 6 more expensive than France for 'private final consumption', which includes all household outgoings.

Eurostat found that food and non-alcoholic drinks were just 3 more expensive in Ireland than France.

The European Commission has dismissed a study by retail trade publishers Retail Intelligence that shows the cost of living and working in Ireland is nearly a third more than in France.