Budget 2025: Seventh-generation Galway publican fears worst for Irish pub if pint prices aren’t tackled
by Holiday_Toe5779
Budget 2025: Seventh-generation Galway publican fears worst for Irish pub if pint prices aren’t tackled
by Holiday_Toe5779
36 comments
TLDR: cuts to benefit the Boys, the customer and low wage workers can get stuffed.
Do these guys know how unlikable they come across? Why is it on the tax payers to subsidize historic gougers, enriched for generations who sell an unhealthy product at extortionate prices back to us?
That’s a lot of generations.
The Famine must have been a difficult few years.
They can fuck right off
I think we collectively decided that paying more than €5 for a pint is taking the piss. And have adjusted our spending habits accordingly.
~~Who was it that pushed for MUP?~~
Edit: embarrassing misunderstanding of MUP on my party. Apologies
If half the pubs in Ireland closed it would be an improvement
https://www.diageo.com/en/contact-us
https://www.pernod-ricard.com/en/contact
As was commonly said when people complained about the price of a pint in the past (during “the good times”): People don’t have to spend their money in the pub if they don’t want to.
Lowering both the excise duty and abolishing the absurd minimum unit pricing for alcohol would be a big vote winner. I’m amazed it hasn’t been proposed by anyone yet.
Pub owners could drop their prices if they wanted. The government doesn’t set drink prices, they just set the tax on it.
It’s only the free market when it impacts PAYE workers.
The prices of pints have pushed the envelope. There’s a cost of living crisis and pints are simply down the priority list as pubs and breweries hike hike hike instead of finding ways to reduce their own costs.
Guy on YouTube I was watching UK, going about places getting pints of G for example for 4/5€ some cases 3.50€, something has seriously gone haywire here in the ROI, the stuff is made here exported over and its cheaper.
Another thing that annoys the shite out of me is some pub that is an utter kip and hasn’t seen a lick of paint in years, offering absolutely nothing no music, game on a screen that’s 20 years old etc.. Charging the same price for a pint as some pub that is putting in the effort.
TBH, phek it, drink is a serious carcinogenic, it really is better that people do not take it up and either seriously cut back or give it up. I say this as someone that likes a few pints/drinks. The price of the stuff is defo helping me cut back and looking at taking a breaks from it.
You could even just say take 8/12 week break, save that money from the nights out and book a nice all inclusive holiday to Spain with the saved money.
The history of pint prices from my glorious recollection:
– A pint of drink X was €5.50
– Covid hits, and then it becomes “support your local community” by spending more in bars, now drink X is €6.50. The bar believes it can do this to make up for lost earnings. None of this extra money goes towards the staff’s lost earnings, or takes into account that many in the community lost their jobs. Support the community means let the publicans restore their former lifestyle. Many pubs claim this price rise is temporary.
– Inflation goes up Y%, so pint prices go up Y x 3%. Drink X is now €7. We’re told that it’s necessary. Heads are scratched in the community; shouldn’t the big increase in price after Covid be able to cover this inflation hike? The artificial raised prices? Why isn’t the pub which calls for supporting the community whoever it’s in trouble now supporting the community itself?
– Diageo increases the cost of a pint by 4c. Drink X is now €7.50. The pub directs all complaints towards the “greedy corporate bastards”.
– Less people go to bars, many who do still go spend less. Publicans are bewildered and wondering who they can convince to give them more money.
Up in the North i can get a pint in my local rural bar for £5.50 or 4 cans of Heineken for £5.20, I’d rather spend the time at home.
I own a bar in Belfast. The pub is 160
Years old has been an important community hub for that time, screening big games, hosting four to five musical events a week and hosts lots of creative groups. I pay colleagues way over minimum wage.
Diageo and other suppliers have raised their wholesale prices three times in the past year, way over inflationary rates, citing input costs. It’s a cash grab that will ultimately bite them when there are no bars left to buy their produce.
We squeezed our margins so small that reserves have gone down and it’ll probably be one shock or a really poor trading quarter that’ll close the bar.
I would if we were able to do it as collective and say for October for the four weekends nobody buy pints or go out a nation. They’d be soon to come up with ideas to reduce the price then
Pubs need to start looking to their suppliers too and ask for the price to change, deiageo blamed the war in Ukraine and energy prices for the first price increase, haven’t energy prices come down and haven’t suppliers found other sources of ingredients that can be sought after Ukraine?
Support the local suppliers and the local community.
The lions ate my face says the publican who teased the lions….zero sympathy for any of them
The inflection point (pint lol) for me was hitting €6 for a Guinness in a normal bar during the day, with prices higher than that being common. The same for coffee breaking €4. I have loads more money than I used to when I spent €5 euro on a pint, but for me it’s a combination of bad service, greed and, the enshitification of everything that has left a bitter taste in my mouth (pint lol).
What’s mad about the whole thing is a bottle of spirits is actually great value these days. How did that become the preferred option instead of a few pints or cans?
Tackled downwards?? Irish solution to an Irish problem. We’re not making enough, so we’ll raise the price. Most other countries reduce the price to get more people in, not penalize the people already supporting your business.
>He is also asking for a reduction in employer’s PRSI, a pause in the living wage and a reduction in the high Vat rate from 23pc to 21pc to help reduce overall operational costs for publicans.
Not just a reduction in the price of pints, but he wants to pay his staff less.
>The business was established way back in 1827. However, 17 years ago he decided to diversify with a gastro pub that also offers accommodation.
Is also a restaurant and guesthouse with very good reviews on Google. But, is located in the middle of nowhere, I’m sure that has nothing to do with people drinking less pints.
i don’t know why it’s so hard for them to understand that they are actively driving people away from going out when to continue to hike prices like this. they complain about less profits while selling drinks at unreasonable prices. if you lowered the prices, more and more of them would be bought. i haven’t been out to be pub in a long time because of this, but tbh, the past few times i have been out, i’ve had to buy a shoulder from an off licence outside and bring it in with me, otherwise i just wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the prices of buying drinks from the pub itself
I remember the good old days when there would be promotions on for £1 for a Whiskey or Vodka or Gin with a mixer. 4 bottles of Alco Pops for £5. 2 Pints for £3. Dublin City on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night would be packed queues waiting to get into places…
I love the pub, but enough is enough. When I’d usually dip in for one on a Friday, I decided against and got nitro surge instead. 6 cans for the price of two pints. Makes no sense anymore. The pubs will go to the wall.
It’s really sad to see the demise of the Irish pub. I know publicans haven’t helped themselves, but so many pubs that were essentially community hubs where people (often elderly or living alone) could drop in for chat and a pint.
Sorry but I can’t get behind this guy or publicans any more in general. He himself might be honest and want to reduce the prices, but after the temporary VAT cut fiasco, anyone who believes the vast majority of publicans would do anything other than pocket every penny if those tax savings is lying to themselves.
Publicans (again as a group, no doubt there are some sound individual ones) cannot and should not be trusted by the Irish consumer any more, and no benefit of the doubt should ever be given to them.
I would only be able to get behind a vat cut for publicans if it set a maximum cost of alcohol and came with a legal mandate to reduce their prices immediately. They’ve burned whatever good will they had completely to the ground.
Too much tax because we apparently can’t control ourselves and it’s easier to just raise taxes than to just shame the binge drinkers
And don’t get me started on soft drinks. 3.50 for a 250ml bottle of 7up.
Pubs need to realize that punters are voting with their feet. Rip them off and they stop coming.
I’m now playing the world’s smallest violin for the biggest rip off merchants in Ireland.
It’s definitely an issue. I want a pint of Guinness but I will stop drinking it if they keep charging mad money. Don’t underestimate how mean paddy can be if he’s pushed
They are killing themselves, a cheap break to somewhere in Europe where you can drink as much as you want for value is the way to go now as opposed to lining the hotel and publican gougers pockets here
To my shame I was in a wheterspoons last night. A pint of fosters is 2.95. I didn’t even spend €30 and had a great night.
Last week I spent 13.50 on a Heineken and Carlsberg.
Tourism footfalls are taking a hit now. The price gouging for short term profits is coming back to haunt the hospitality industry. Tourists must think the country is a rip off for what they get. Younger generations can’t afford to sit in a pub all day drinking 7 euro pints…
You would wonder for the older generation where going to the pub was their primary social activity do now. No way you could hold up a bar stool for 3-4 days a week at these prices.
You reap what you sow.
Pubs started gouging when times were good for them and people stopped going out as much. COVID stopped a good few people from going to the pub as well as it broke a routine. You see feck all kids going out drinking these days because it’s too expensive. They have put a lot of people off and blame everyone else but themselves.
Of course the above doesn’t apply to all pubs but they have completely shot themselves in the foot and now the next generation has feck all interest in them.
They lobbied for MUP as well so good riddance to them. €7/8 for a shit pint and all they do is cry in the media about tax breaks so they can try and make up for the customers who they have put off. Great work lads!