Dominick Donnelly

19th May 2009

Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, Green Party member of Passage West Town Council and candidate for Cork County Council, urges all consumers to help the Irish economy by buying Irish products, particularly food products, in Irish owned shops.

Cllr. Donnelly said: “From meeting many people working in the food industry as I go around canvassing, there is obviously huge pressure being put on this vital sector of our economy by the current recession. There is a huge temptation for consumers to go out and buy the cheapest products they can get, whatever the quality and wherever they have come from. People must understand that when they buy foreign produced food in foreign owned shops, most of that money is effectively leaving the Irish economy. However if they buy Irish made food is Irish owned shops, all of that money is staying in the Irish economy, which benefits us all.”

Cllr. Donnelly continued: “There is huge pressure being put on Irish owned shops and food producers by cheap imported food at the moment. Many of the large retailers, which are still highly profitable, are using the recession as an excuse to squeeze the margins of the Irish food producers. In the long term the only ones to gain from this will be their own shareholders, not the Irish consumers. For our own long term good, we must resist the temptation to save a few euros in the short term, as if the Irish food industry goes into decline, the effect on the Irish economy will be colossal, and that would have a very negative effect on all our pockets. It is vitally important that we secure the profitability of the Irish food and farming sectors, with all the hundreds of thousands of jobs within that sector, by buying quality Irish food in Irish owned shops, wherever we possibly can.”