Capping the price of basic groceries would mean ‘farmers will suffer’,  a supermarket owner has argued. 

Sinn Féin has said the solution to surging inflation is a price cap on essential items, such as bread, milk and eggs. 

Pearse Doherty said that in power his party would establish a Grocery Price Caps Commission, which would “examine what groceries could be subject to maximum pricing and the forms that this may take”. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Cleland’s Supermarket owner Alex Cleland said that rising prices are “absolutely no benefit to my business or any other retail unit”. 

However, he argued that retailers have no choice but to put up their prices. 

“The higher the prices, the less people are going to spend because they're restricted in their disposable income,” he said. 

“That's no good to us, but the prices are rising because of costs that have been forced on us by the Government.” 

Fruit on display in a Tesco supermarket. Picture by: Doug Houghton / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Cleland continued if the Government does cap the prices of certain items, it will be Ireland’s farmers who suffer. 

“The prices are rising because of costs that have been forced on us by the Government,” he said. 

“So, trying to put a price cap [on] the staples, like bread, milk and the rest of it, who suffers there? 

“Because the people that will suffer there will be the farmers and the farmers get kicked in the teeth enough in this country without the Government then putting something in place that's going to force them to take the hit - which you can be absolutely guaranteed.” 

A sheepdog herding sheep. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Mr Cleland predicted that price caps would lead to small retailers going out of business and said the Government would be responsible. 

He added that blaming wars in the Middle East and Ukraine for the current economic climate was a “cop out”. 

“You look at the billions that are wasted every single year through government spending and the public service, there's billions wasted,” he argued. 

“There's no accountability; the Government, these guys are supposed to be the people that are controlling that. 

“They have absolutely no idea how to control it.”

Mr Cleland urged the Government to reduce spending in the public sector and use the revenue to cut taxes. 

“If they're not wasting billions on public service, they can reduce the desire and the need for taxes,” he said. 

“If they reduce the need for taxes, it makes it easier to keep prices down because you're not pushing prices up just to cover the cost, the tax costs, the cost of employment, cost of energy.”

Main image: A farmer on Valentia Island. Picture by: Alamy.com.