Minimum alcohol pricing is nigh

PunkIPA

There's a very nice little product in Aldi, Brown Bear IPA, produced here in Ireland (Pearse Lyons I think), 7.5% at 500ml.

Goes very nicely with rich foods, their duck pancakes being my usual pairing. I might drink two or three of these over the course of a weekend.

It currently sells for €2. With MUP the price will rise to €3.75. That's the better part of €300 over the course of a year.

I drink quite a few Irish craft beers which will also be affected by this puritanical nonsense.

Now, I am in Dublin City Centre every day and see alcoholics drinking on the steps of the Customs House and along the Quays all the time. I've yet to see them supping that particular brew.

If MUP is brought in I will simply stop buying any retail alcohol in this country, as I would imagine will anybody with an ounce of sense. A spin up to Newry once a year or every six months with a family member to buy a year's worth of drink will become the new norm.

I have never seen a stupider public health policy in all my life.

Oh wait, I have, those useless f**king flappy doors, which goes to show the staggering levels of stupefying incompetence involved with the people making these decisions.

PunkIPA

Just another example:

The cheapest a 700ml bottle of 40% spirit can sell for is €22. Already, the likes of Jameson Crested and Black Bush can be got on sale for €25.

Again, not the favoured tipple of the average wino.

Those days will be gone. If the entry level expressions are selling for a minimum €22, the cheapest the more upmarket drams will be selling for is c.€30.

Anyone who thinks that MUP won't increase the price of their chosen tipple is, quite frankly, deluded, unless they are regularly swilling Dom or Dream Cask of a weekend.

The annual pilgrimage across the border will become an inevitable part of Irish life if this deranged lunacy goes ahead.

Tony EH

PunkIPA wrote: »

I have never seen a stupider public health policy in all my life.

Minimum pricing has nothing to do with "health". It's price gouging, nothing more.

KrustyUCC

PunkIPA wrote: »

There's a very nice little product in Aldi, Brown Bear IPA, produced here in Ireland (Pearse Lyons I think), 7.5% at 500ml.

Goes very nicely with rich foods, their duck pancakes being my usual pairing. I might drink two or three of these over the course of a weekend.

It currently sells for €2. With MUP the price will rise to €3.75. That's the better part of €300 over the course of a year.

I drink quite a few Irish craft beers which will also be affected by this puritanical nonsense.

Now, I am in Dublin City Centre every day and see alcoholics drinking on the steps of the Customs House and along the Quays all the time. I've yet to see them supping that particular brew.

If MUP is brought in I will simply stop buying any retail alcohol in this country, as I would imagine will anybody with an ounce of sense. A spin up to Newry once a year or every six months with a family member to buy a year's worth of drink will become the new norm.

I have never seen a stupider public health policy in all my life.

Oh wait, I have, those useless f**king flappy doors, which goes to show the staggering levels of stupefying incompetence involved with the people making these decisions.

Great beer alright

I'm definitely stocking up before this travesty comes in

Eunan McKinney lying on virgin media news that the price differential won't drive people over the border

€10 saving for the same bottle of whiskey makes shopping in the North a no brainer

KrustyUCC

PunkIPA wrote: »

Just another example:

The cheapest a 700ml bottle of 40% spirit can sell for is €28. Already, the likes of Jameson Crested and Black Bush can be got on sale for €25.

Again, not the favoured tipple of the average wino.

Those days will be gone. If the entry level expressions are selling for a minimum €28, the cheapest the more upmarket drams will be selling for is c.€35.

Anyone who thinks that MUP won't increase the price of their chosen tipple is, quite frankly, deluded, unless they are regularly swilling Dom or Dream Cask of a weekend.

The annual pilgrimage across the border will become an inevitable part of Irish life if this deranged lunacy goes ahead.

€22.09 for a bottle of whiskey

€31.56 for the cheapest litre of whiskey

That will drive prices in premium brands up alright

PunkIPA

KrustyUCC wrote: »

€22.09 for a bottle of whiskey

€31.56 for the cheapest litre of whiskey

That will drive prices in premium brands up alright

Ah, my calculations were slightly off - I though a 1ml of alcohol had a mass of a 1g rather than 0.8g.

My point still stands!

KrustyUCC

PunkIPA wrote: »

Ah, my calculations were slightly off - I though a 1ml of alcohol had a mass of a 1g rather than 0.8g.

My point still stands!

Absolutely but you might get the examples you gave for €28-€30 on sale with bog standard whiskey at €22

Tony EH

Akesh wrote: »

We are a disgraceful nanny state. It's actually embarrassing. I don't know how the people of Ireland aren't calling out for direct democracy.

Vote for the same charlatans every year and expect different results. We get what we deserve.

It has fuck all to do with "nanny state". The people pushing this don't care about your health. They care about the money in your wallet.

They'll hide behind a plethora of of "caring" words and phrases and talk down to you saying "it's for your own good".

But it's the extra shillings they're interested in.

Thelonious Monk

Tony EH wrote: »

Minimum pricing has nothing to do with "health". It's price gouging, nothing more.

I don't even think it is, because it doesn't benefit government coffers. I think it's simply a case of no one putting a stop or standing up to the couple of Oireachtas members and the likes of those c*nts in AAI who are pushing this, and allowing them to carry on with their plan to stop everyone drinking or making us feel like f*cking children.
And why aren't radio presenters etc representing the public on this issue? It makes me so angry.
Spineless rats the lot of them.

dirkmeister

Terry Prachett had a great line about how you can push almost anything through once you tell the people it’s in the interests of “good”.

Imagine a journalist in Ireland that might bother doing a price check on just how “cheap” our alcohol really is?!?

Wouldn’t that be something.

Fr Tod Umptious

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I don't even think it is, because it doesn't benefit government coffers. I think it's simply a case of no one putting a stop or standing up to the couple of Oireachtas members and the likes of those c*nts in AAI who are pushing this, and allowing them to carry on with their plan to stop everyone drinking or making us feel like f*cking children.
And why aren't radio presenters etc representing the public on this issue? It makes me so angry.
Spineless rats the lot of them.

Oh I think you will look back in years to come and say to yourself, WTF ?

It's the price of off licenses booze for Christ sake.

You seem to be really agitated about it.

C*nts, rats, really ?

Thelonious Monk

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Oh I think you will look back in years to come and say to yourself, WTF ?

It's the price of off licenses booze for Christ sake.

You seem to be really agitated about it.

C*nts, rats, really ?

Yep, this kind of nannying over alcohol really annoys me, it's bad enough here with licencing hours and all of these things and now they're pandering to a few puritan nutjobs instead of listening to the vast majority of the population.

Fr Tod Umptious

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Yep, this kind of nannying over alcohol really annoys me, it's bad enough here with licencing hours and all of these things and now they're pandering to a few puritan nutjobs instead of listening to the vast majority of the population.

While I tend to agree with you about the restriction of opening hours, the reversal of the 12:30am on a Thursday and the introduction of the 10pm for Off licenses in particular I would not have been as animated as yourself about it at the time and it doesn't really bother me now.

But I'm someone who did my drinking primarily in the 1990s

At the time pubs closed at either 11pm or 11.30pm depending on summer or winter
There were no late bars and night clubs only opened till 1am I believe

Also a can of off license beer was approx. IR£1 or more and there was no 20 bottle or can box deals available.

So with weekend bars opening till at least 12:30 and a plethora of late bars to chose from and the fact that off license drink is "relatively" cheaper than it was 25 years ago, things has actually improved a great deal.

Mimon

Mr. teddywinkles wrote: »

Excuse the rant but
So they want to bring in MUP.
More taxes coming in people next year to pay for covid.
Ban firewood and irish briquettes.
Increase the cost of flying abroad significantly for a holiday.
Change direct provision process to enable to spend billions of taxpayers money to bring in
1000s if not 10000s of migrants from outside the EU and house them at the taxpayers expense.
Anything else I'm missing.
I suppose increase the pension age to 80 next.
They tell us it's good our mental health being busy.
Jesus the one thing I have after working my arse off all week.
A drink on a Sunday evening.
Cant even have that.

Get your point about the nanny state stuff in general but can't agree with a lot of your other points.

Bit too right wing on the refugee bashing and don't see the problem with saving the remaining bogs that we have for a myriad of reasons.

This minimum pricing stuff alone is enough to ensure that I won't vote for FF or FG in the next election.

Muahahaha

VinLieger wrote: »

Gonna really start stepping up my home brew game, been solely doing wine for a while but definitely moving into beer when im not using the equipment for wine.

Yeah likewise, used to brew a few years back and will likely go back to it, I can see a bit of a boom in homebrewing when people realise you can make really good beer for just 50c a pint. Its also likely MUP turn into a double whammy for the craft brewing industry as their retail prices rise while simultaneously people see homebrewers making beers just as good for a fraction of the cost of craft beers in the supermarkets.

Big Gerry wrote: »

When minimum pricing comes in I can see the black market for drink taking off like a rocket.

Yeah can definitely see a black market emerging pretty quickly. Revenue already admit that around 25% of all tobacco sales in Ireland are through the black market. Its a relatively new phenomenon brought about because of a decade of annual price rises on cigarettes that far outstrip the level of inflation. Theres a wide network across the country already selling cigarettes door to door, people put in their orders on Whatsapp and its delivered weekly. That same network is already well positioned to move into alcohol now too. I can also see criminal gangs setting up mobile distilleries in truck trailers, moving them about to avoid detection. Polish community are also likely to get into distillation too.

10 years ago illegal distilleries started popping up around the border. It'll be happening again if 20+ quid is the cheapest bottle of **** vodka available legally.

elperello

Mimon wrote: »

Get your point about the nanny state stuff in general but can't agree with a lot of your other points.

Bit too right wing on the refugee bashing and don't see the problem with saving the remaining bogs that we have for a myriad of reasons.

This minimum pricing stuff alone is enough to ensure that I won't vote for FF or FG in the next election.

Worth noting that no party voted against this in Dail or Senate.

The only politician who spoke out against it was Prof. Sean Barrett when he was a Senator.

Being an economist he saw immediately that the money will be going to the drinks trade.

Atlantic Dawn

FF clown being schooled now on Tonight Show on VM1.

Reputable Rog

A lot of unrest at the Blueshirt PP meeting tonight over MUP.
Varadamir says nothing is agreed, only Frank Feighan spoke in favour.
I don’t think it will happen anytime soon, all depends on what nut job replaces Snarlene though.

Atlantic Dawn

FF clown mentions that there is no heavy volumes of traffic crossing the border to buy cheaper tobacco up North, eh that might be because cigarettes are dearer up north than here, bloody idiot...

€14.20
https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=252173783

€15.28/£13.30
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/295664413

KrustyUCC

Reputable Rog wrote: »

A lot of unrest at the Blueshirt PP meeting tonight over MUP.
Varadamir says nothing is agreed, only Frank Feighan spoke in favour.
I don’t think it will happen anytime soon, all depends on what nut job replaces Snarlene though.

Good

Leo's a big fan of MUP so I doubt it will get changed at this stage

Still nice the bleeding obvious about cross border trade being pointed out along with breaking the program for government

KrustyUCC

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

FF clown mentions that there is no heavy volumes of traffic crossing the border to buy cheaper tobacco up North, eh that might be because cigarettes are dearer up north than here, bloody idiot...

€14.20
https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=252173783

€15.28/£13.30
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/295664413

Who from FF was trying to defend it?

Atlantic Dawn

KrustyUCC wrote: »

Who from FF was trying to defend it?

Niall Collins

KrustyUCC

"Minister of State for Public Health Frank Feighan said the measure was targeting “harmful drinkers to buy cheap drink” and that it cannot wait. He said it would make “no difference” to “95 to 95pc” of alcohol served in off licences and he wanted it introduced as soon as possible.

What lies Frank Feighan is spouting

KrustyUCC

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Niall Collins

Makes sense

He's a clown on the majority of issues

Atlantic Dawn

Reputable Rog wrote: »

I don’t think it will happen anytime soon, all depends on what nut job replaces Snarlene though.

Yes they could potentially ban shopping of any kind on the sabbath

EddieN75

Country short of a few euro post Covid. No better time to increase duties (tax) on booze.

The ruffians and minions will keep buying it regardless. The last thing they want is for people to buy less of it. Less booze means less revenue for the state.

Suckit

EddieN75 wrote: »

Country short of a few euro post Covid. No better time to increase duties (tax) on booze.

The ruffians and minions will keep buying it regardless. The last thing they want is for people to buy less of it. Less booze means less revenue for the state.

They aren't increasing any tax, it's just going to be profit for the retailers and breweries.

But there was talk of taxing it coming from within the EU like VRT. But can't see how that would be enforced.

quinnd6

It's the wealthy trying to steal from the poor again.
Make people who like the odd drink or two just as a bit of relief at the weekend pay more and line the politicians pocket so they can buy more of the expensive stuff for themselves because we all know those politicians are rolling in it.
Miserable bunch of fascist bullies that are running and ruining this country.
Running it into the ground.

Alcohol over here is already too expensive anyway. It's the most expensive in the EU.
We have crap weather, nowhere to go, nothing to do and they want to deprive people who don't have an alcohol problem to treating themselves to a drink or two at the weekend.
That's what I literally have.
One or 2 pints of cider in total at the weekend or a couple of glasses of wine at the weekend.
I don't drink during the week.
So they want to rip people like me off further.
Screw them.

the beer revolu

Suckit wrote: »

But there was talk of taxing it coming from within the EU like VRT. But can't see how that would be enforced.

Excise duty is already payable on all alcohol in Ireland, imported or domestic.
It is already enforced and has been for generations.