THE Director of Consumer Affairs, Mr William Fagan, is prepared to examine the reasons why the price of beef products at retail level has not kept pace with the fall in prices paid to farmers.
It is estimated that this price fall would be worth £500,000 a week to consumers.
Mr Fagan said yesterday that he had no powers to force supermarkets or butchers to reduce the price of beef in line with the price falls at marts and in factories.
"If anyone has a viewpoint that my intervention might be useful I will do that," he said yesterday.
Mr Fagan said his office could monitor retail prices with the help of the Department of Agriculture and publish the findings.
At the weekend, Mr Pat Upton a Labour TD for Dublin South Central, called on Mr Fagan to publish price guidelines for retail beef. He said Mr Fagan should demand to know why the £2 million a month drop in the cost of beef to the retail butchers has resulted in a negligible reduction in the cost of beef to consumers.
"The long term interests of the beef industry would be much better served by letting the consumer have the benefit of the £0.5 million a week which the industry is saving as a result of the BSE scare," he said.
There have been a number of calls on the Office of Consumer Affairs to become involved as cattle prices continue to fall. It is estimated that producer prices have fallen by up to 20 per cent since March 20th.
Yesterday, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association called on supermarkets to drop their prices to stimulate the home market, which consumes beef worth £230 million annually.
The ICMSA survey concluded that consumers were paying 12p per lb too much for beef in supermarkets, having compared the fall in cattle prices with an analysis of the latest official statistics and its own survey on prices charged for five cuts of meats.
"The average price of beef to consumers has fallen by only 3.2p since mid February. However, the average ice paid to farmers has fallen by 15.3 pence," said an ICMSA spokesman.
The ICMSA survey found that the supermarket price of boneless leg of beef has been reduced by 12p per lb since then, while the price for pot roast had increased by 10p per lb.
ICMSA said lowering of consumer prices to realistic levels would help to restore consumer confidence.
One leading Dublin chain of butchers shops, FX Buckley, said yesterday that it has reduced its overall price of meat by 10 per cent since the crisis and turnover was up by 10 per cent.
Mr Tom Buckley said that beef was selling better than this time last year and sales were up on the same period last year.
"I think recovery of the market can be price led as long as the butcher can guarantee the source and purity of the product. We kill only our own animals and those of our neighbours so we can give those guarantees," he said.
Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, said yesterday it was monitoring the situation.