At the same time as the number of Irish millionaires grows, bread and butter issues are coming to the fore as a major concern for grocery shoppers and consumers of other goods and services.

Retail Intelligence issued an online survey in June showing how unscrupulous businesses and individuals used the conversion of Ireland's currency to the euro in January of this year to gouge consumers.

Claims and counter claims over the prices charged for groceries dominated news stories in June.

The initial survey covered costs in Dublin and St Tropez on the French Riviera. It revealed that a shopping trolley of goods cost €296.31 in a Dublin suburb and the same goods cost €232.82 in St Tropez.

A list of 40 grocery and drink items showed Irish consumers paid 23 per cent more than their French counterparts.

Even Guinness was more expensive in Ireland, where a 500 ml. can cost €2.09 compared with €1.32 in France.

"There's serious evidence that someone's making a killing at the expense of the Irish consumer", said Michael Kilcoyne , chairman of the Consumers' Association of Ireland.

The marketing director of the Superquinn retailing chain in Ireland, Eamon Quinn, countered that products produced in Ireland such as lamb, eggs, milk and Coca Cola, were generally cheaper than their French counterparts.

The independent grocer group RGDATA said later that its own survey showed that prices in Ireland are more than 4 per cent cheaper than in six other EU states.

In April and May, RGDATA had attempted to purchase a range of 35 "common grocery products" such as Coca-Cola, Heinz Ketchup, milk, eggs, cheese and bread, at well-known European stores but found that as few as 22 of these could be purchased in France and Germany.

However, a report from Forfás, a government agency, has said that Ireland has become the most expensive Eurozone country in which to buy a basket of groceries in retail outlets. In fact, it claimed that a typical basket of groceries including potatoes, chickens, eggs, lettuce, and biscuits, costs more in the average mid-priced outlet in Ireland that anywhere else in the eurozone.

It questioned why dairy products, eggs and vegetables are among the most expensive in Ireland although the country produces them and is the only eurozone where they are VAT exempt.

Ireland, it found, was also the most expensive for cigarettes and wine, but relatively inexpensive for heating fuel, electricity and clothing. It added that salaries in Ireland were also rising rapidly and after-tax Irish employee incomes are third-best paid in the eurozone, after France and Luxembourg.

Forfás also said there was evidence of euro "profiteering" by doctors, dentists, publicans, hairdressers, restaurants and others, consequent on the introduction of the euro in place of the Irish punt.

My, my, my! How times and tastes have changed. Heinz Ketchup and Coca Cola. What happened to HP Sauce and refreshingly cold clear water from Neely's well?

Not altogether surprisingly, Bord Failte, the Irish Tourist Board, has found that the number of tourists visiting Ireland so far this year is down compared with previous years.

Factors that are being blamed are the lingering impact of September 11 on tourism from the U.S., lack of access on transatlantic routes, and concern about high prices in Ireland.

Bord Failte warns that businesses will have to keep prices down to protect an industry worth 5 billion euro to the Irish economy.