Supermarket giant Tesco has rebuffed claims it is not passing on discounts resulting from the abolition of the Groceries Order, after hundreds of customers e-mailed the company with demands to cut prices.

Rip-Off Republic presenter Eddie Hobbs earlier this week called on consumers to assail the supermarket chain and rival Dunnes Stores with e-mails because, Mr Hobbs said, the two companies were failing to pass on lower prices from suppliers.

The Groceries Order was discarded in March and new competition legislation was introduced.

Tesco yesterday e-mailed shoppers who had complained and told them it had reduced prices on 450 products since the order was abolished.

Tesco's grocery prices, marketing director Peter Wright wrote, continued to be the lowest in the Irish market.

It intended to further cut prices on all products previously controlled by the Groceries Order "over the coming months", Mr Wright wrote.

The company carries out weekly surveys of 9,000 prices at Dunnes, SuperValu and Superquinn, according to a spokeswoman.

The surveys show that Tesco's prices are, on average, 2 per cent cheaper than those at Dunnes, 5 per cent cheaper than at SuperValu, and are 7 per cent lower than Superquinn's prices.

However, the results fluctuate week on week, and Tesco had also been compelled to raise some prices because of increases from suppliers. It declined to say how many products it increased prices on.

A survey carried out by independent website Shoppingbill.com earlier this month suggested that prices on a basket of goods from Tesco, Dunnes and Superquinn had risen since the abolition of the order.

The findings led to a dispute between Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Phil Hogan, who had opposed the abolition of the order and pointed to the survey as evidence that he was right, and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin, who accused Fine Gael of masquerading as the consumers' friend.