Cantillon: Alcohol pricing proposal sends shivers down spines of Middle Ireland

The recommendation by the Oireachtas health committee yesterday that the Government enacts its highest proposed minimum unit price for alcohol has sent shivers down the spines of half of Middle Ireland. The prospect of a floor price of €10 for a bottle of wine has sent some on Twitter into overdrive.

The Government is attempting to walk a fine line between reducing the consumption of cheap booze among those citizens most at risk from alcohol abuse, while avoiding enraging the masses who simply want to enjoy an affordable tipple without being penalised.

The Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, the industry lobby group, was quick out of the traps to criticise the recommendation. It said alcohol “consumed in moderation” was not harmful. Upward pressure on Ireland’s already high prices will hit the cost of living and damage tourism, it suggested.

The committee, however, was always unlikely to recommend anything other than a unit price at the upper end of the range proposed by Government.

It isn’t concerned with tourist numbers or the cost of a naggin of vodka in Dublin compared with Berlin. The committee should only be concerned only with the effectiveness of the proposed measures as they pertain to the nation’s health.

The clue is in the committee’s name.

It would appear slightly alarmist to suggest the proposed measure would directly impact tourism in any meaningful way. A minimum unit price would boost the cost of only the very cheapest spirits and beers, and only in off licences.

Critics of the measure argue, perhaps with some justification, that any floor price will have a knock-on effect, bumping up prices all along the chain. The wines that currently cost €10 will be increased in price so as to differentiate them from the currently-cheaper plonk that will be thrust to that price level.

That is a reasonable risk. As is the suggestion that the big supermarket chains will exploit the measure to simply fatten their margins on cheap booze.

There is, though, no such thing low-cost alcohol, even now.

When street alcoholics can poison themselves with €10 bottles of vodka, it is they who pay the price so that the rest of us can enjoy bargain basement merlot with our Friday-night steaks in front of the television.