People Before Profit has called for the Government to open not for profit supermarkets in order to “tackle food poverty”. 

The proposal comes after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced he would open five discount stores that will sell essential food items 30% below standard retail prices. 

The left-wing Mayor said the discount “adds up to real money for New Yorkers”, with an estimated annual saving of $1,000 (€880). 

On Newstalk Breakfast, People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy said the Government should follow his example and called for a pilot programme, with five discount stores in locations across the country. 

“We propose to pay for it by implementing a tax on the largest grocery stores and on the fast food chains,” Cllr Reddy said. 

“They got massive tax breaks last year with the VAT reduction in the budget. 

“So, it's quite a modest proposal that we had, but it was to stock those basic essentials.

“We feel it's really necessary.”

Fresh fruit. Picture by: Islandstock / Alamy.

The Ballymun-Finglas Councillor described it as a “modest proposal” that would only see healthy essential items sold in the discount stores, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat and other essentials. 

Cllr Reddy continued that the stores could be funded by taxing the profits of supermarkets in Ireland. 

“The idea with the five pilots is that you'd locate them in areas with the highest level of need,” he said. 

“So, you'd use things like deprivation index to guide that and other data that's out there on food deserts.” 

Cllr Reddy added that he is relaxed about rich people travelling out of their way to shop at discount stores, a phenomenon he said would not be “the end of the world”. 

“I don't think competition for Tesco or Aldi or Lidl or anyone else is necessarily a bad thing,” he said. 

“So look, I think everyone deserves access to high quality, affordable produce. 

“No one in this country at the moment is really having a good time and prices have increased massively since 2022.”

Main image: Fruit for sale in a supermarket. Picture by: Alamy.com.