Ground Floor/Sheila O'Flanagan: I hadn't, as it happens, actually heard Mary Harney's exhortations for us to "shop around" when I penned my piece on the cost of supermarket shopping last week, although I suppose taking a flight to Spain to load up at the local Carrefour every weekend wasn't exactly what she had in mind.
I'd happily complain about prices here if I thought it would make any difference but who exactly do you complain to?
The employee at the information desk in the supermarket who has no control over them anyway? The supervisor that he or she will call for you who will only shrug and say it's to do with costs?
A couple of years ago when I was getting the kitchen refitted and reeled in horror at the price of a few cupboards, the salesman just looked pityingly at me and said that nobody else was worried about it.
I was hugely embarrassed at the idea of having crossed the threshold of his store when I was clearly not the kind of customer he had in mind.
I shouldn't have cared but I did. I think that might be the problem for many Irish people. We hate to appear as though we can't afford to buy something, as though by admitting that it's too expensive we're saying that it's not a reflection on the goods but a reflection on ourselves.
Anyway, this week I coughed up the requisite amount for the weekly shopping without a murmur, even though I knew I could have got everything in my trolley plus a few crates of beer and some half-decent bottles of Rioja in Alicante for about two-thirds of the price.
Maybe, though, with the breaking up of Aer Rianta, the cost of heading out to Spain for a monthly shopping expedition might not be too prohibitive in the future.
(Always providing, of course, that Michael O'Leary can persuade enough airports there that they want to sign up to the Ryanair company hymn sheet.)
However, in complete contradiction to everything I've ever believed about politicians, Seamus Brennan actually got something done and in a manner that has evoked positive comment from a wide assortment of interested parties despite some natural grumblings from the unions.
Although I've never quite agreed with O'Leary's assertion that Dublin is a third world airport (the aluminium tube at Heathrow beats it hands down in that regard), the question of value for money as far as Aer Rianta's management goes has always been at issue.
I was more sympathetic to O'Leary's view when flying out of Dublin last time, though - a mechanical problem meant that we had to disembark from our aircraft and hang around the airport for a few hours.
I've yet to figure out what planning schedule meant that all flights seemed to be departing from Pier B, which was wildly overcrowded, even without the extra people from our flight, while Pier C was deserted.
And why is it that there are only a few places to get something to eat airside when there are loads of places before you go through the boarding area?
Anyway, I'm happy to see change taking place but I'd like to be sure that when Aer Rianta is broken up, there's a coherent, profitable and consumer-friendly structure to replace it.
Realistically, you can't shop around very far when you've been corralled into an airport but if you're making radical changes you have to make them for the better - not something we've often been very good at.
The price of property lends itself to another shopping around exercise. Despite the direst predictions from eminent journals like the Economist, property in Ireland is still shockingly expensive.
When prices started to go up first I believed that it was a catch-up exercise - after all, there wasn't another capital city in Europe where you could buy houses with gardens a few miles from the city centre for less than €100,000.
But now it seems you could buy half the capitals of Europe for the price of a semi-d within commuting distance of Dublin.
I notice, however, that at the top end of the market houses are being kitted out at a higher spec to somehow justify their breathtaking price tags.
A development on Griffith Avenue in Drumcondra, where prices start at €1.1 million, includes whirlpool baths in the main bathrooms and includes all kitchen appliances.
However, a little more judicious shopping around might lead you to look at London instead.
Since sterling continues to decline against the euro it might not be long before the £1.75 million penthouses in Canary Riverside come into the frame for potential purchasers from Ireland in the million euro-plus price bracket.
They come with the usual facilities like underfloor heating, designer kitchens and membership of a health and fitness club, but also offer the potential purchaser a Marquis Private Jet card, which apparently will entitle the new owner to order a seven-seater plane to fly you to wherever you want in Europe!
On the basis that the new airport management company improves the facilities at Dublin, the commute from London could become a simple fact of life via your own private jet. Not only that, but you won't have to worry about parking fees at the UK end because you get a complimentary limousine service.
OK, there are terms and conditions and although I would have liked to check them out for you I'm still scarred by my experience in the kitchen showrooms, so I didn't have the guts to ring up and act like I could actually afford one of these apartments.
Nevertheless they're not hugely more expensive than any of the top-level developments that Dublin has had to offer in recent times.
But we're still stuck with the whirlpool baths and marble tiles in the hallway as symbols of high living.
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