One of the key strategies of any government when it runs into trouble is to buy time. This is often achieved by shunting the problem elsewhere and getting someone to “look into it”. Ideally, the inquiring body is an agency outside of government, giving a degree of distance. Governments generally hope that by the time the report is done the whole thing will have gone away.

And so, as reports circulated about home heating oil prices shooting up and prices at the pumps starting to rise due to conflict in the Gulf, Minister for Enterprise, Peter Burke, asked during the week for a report from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). The body, according to the Minister’s statement, is “to urgently investigate claims from citizens who have raised significant concerns around price gouging and illegal practice in terms of home heating oil, petrol and diesel”. The statement adds that the CCPC has the power to fine companies up to €10 million or 10 per cent of turnover. The Government thus buys a bit of time.

This gives the impression of some kind of crackdown – with consequences. But it is really political PR. A statement from the CCPC itself, issued on Wednesday, shows why. The key phrase it contained was “there is no legal obligation on companies to set their prices at a level that consumers will consider fair”. There is no price control in the State and companies can set what prices they want, provided they do so “independently” – in other words that they don’t collude with competitors on what they will charge.

So what can the CCPC do? Two things. The first is to look for any evidence of collusion among firms in the heating-oil........

© The Irish Times