A suggestion of introducing price caps on food staples has been dismissed by one economics professor.
John Fitzgerald, Adjunct Professor at the Department of Economics at Trinity, said this is not a uniquely Irish problem and is present across Europe.
It follows a meeting of the Retail Forum on Wednesday, which included retailers and representative bodies.
Minister of State Neale Richmond said he "received assurances from retailers that, where reductions in input costs filter through to products, consumers will benefit from this."
Prof Fitzgerald told The Hard Shoulder the issue of rising prices is an external one.
"There is a problem that prices of food are up very substantially compared to last year," he said.
"The way to deal with that for those who are particularly hard-hit is the social welfare system.
"The problem about this is [Russian President] Vladimir Putin.
"If you look at the rise in prices in Ireland of food, compared to other European countries, they've risen less here than in pretty well every other EU country.
"In every country in Europe... this is a problem due to Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.
"The way to deal with this is people who are particularly hard-hit, you use the welfare system to aid them.
"Both the Government and a lot of politicians [are] saying, 'This is a problem with the retail sector' - it's not.
"It's generalised across Europe".
'Out of control'
People Before Profit TD for Dublin South-West, Paul Murphy, disagrees.
"They should: they have the power to do it, and they should act," he said.
"Instead what we've had yesterday was the Minister Neale Richmond meeting the major food companies, telling them they really should reduce their prices [and] no guarantee from the companies that they're going to do it.
"They're going to meet again in six weeks, and they're going to get another stern talking to, when the Government actually has the power to do something about it.
"Inflation, particularly food inflation, is out of control".
Deputy Murphy said the food bill for an average family has increased by "about €1,200" in the last 12 months.
"The consequence of that is hard for lots of families; for some - for one in 10 families - it's quite devastating," he said.
"It means they're reliant now on foodbanks".
He said maximum prices could be set under the Consumer Protection Act on staple goods like pasta, bread, eggs, milk and toilet paper.
