Writing in Public Affairs Ireland, Patrick McNutt observes that everyday experience in Ireland of late is one of ever-increasing prices and increasing charges across the board, particularly in the regulated sectors. J.K Galbraith caught the mood in his Affluent Society published nearly fifty years ago in 1958: ‘there is nothing on which the conventional wisdom is more completely agreed than the importance of stable prices’. Price conscious consumers in Ireland would concur. Why do we need so many regulators to regulate the price?