The Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, is to announce a new national agency to clamp down on the prices of consumer goods and services.
The new agency will take over from the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs and will have wider powers and more staff.
The agency will tackle the prices of a wide range of goods and services from food and alcohol to transport and pharmaceuticals.
It will have the power to impose and enforce fines directly and to close down businesses that do not comply with its orders.
It is understood that the agency may be established on an interim basis by the end of the summer.
The announcement will be made next Wednesday on foot of the recommendations of the Consumer Strategy Group which has been studying the issue of consumer prices for the past year
