Ireland's smaller shops and higher transportation costs are contributing to higher prices for Irish goods than in the UK.
That's according to a lecturer in retail management, who was reacting to a survey which found Irish shoppers pay up to 70% more for Irish goods than in the UK.
The Sunday Times study looked at well-known Irish products like Clonakilty sausages, Irish Yogurts, Sudocrem and Barry's Tea.
A tub of Sudocrem - as one example - costs €11.79 in a Tesco Ireland shop, but in a UK Tesco outlet the same product is priced at stg£5.80 (€6.85).
Damian O'Reilly is lecturer in retail management at TU Dublin.
He told The Hard Shoulder the big supermarkets have more power.
"We are talking about a range of products that is quite small... there's probably eight to 10 products.
"You consider that the supermarkets here are carrying up to 20,000 items, and in the UK up to 40,000 items, and it's a very competitive market."
Using an example like Kerrygold, he says UK sellers may be lowering the price as it's not the number one brand.
"The number one brand is probably Anchor and then Lurpak, which are going up in price.
"They're not pushing price increases through, the big retailers, because they've got a lot of power.
"What's happening then is that they're using - possibly, this is my own opinion - tertiary products, or third-level products - the likes of Kerrygold... is being pushed a little bit more to keep commodity prices down."
'Limit on grocery store size'
And he says Ireland's retail make-up, of a larger number of smaller shops, also means our costs are higher.
"There's a limit on the size of grocery stores here, so there's a cap on the square footage that you can have here.
"So that means we have smaller stores, and we've got the best in the world convenience store operations here.
"But it does mean that there are higher prices associated with distribution, with transportation, labour costs because of those smaller stores - and some of those smaller stores are in higher rent locations as well".
Mr O’Reilly adds: "The one thing that we do here in Ireland, compared to the UK, is we buy a lot more branded products.
"The UK buy significantly more private label than we do here - and private label tends to be lower cost".
Newstalk Breakfast presenters Shane Coleman and Ciara Kelly believe Irish people need to "wake up and vote with their feet" if we want to see a fall in supermarket prices.
"It’s actually really galling,” Ciara said earlier. "I think it’s happening because we’re willing to pay higher prices over here."
She said Irish people often reject cheaper alternatives out of a fear of being seen as miserly.
Shane said the rise of Lidl and Aldi in Ireland is already changing things, but agreed: "We need to vote with our feet."
"We need to start actually saying we’re not going to take this anymore because this is crazy."
