The Government is expected to announce a six-month freeze on the price of drink tomorrow as part of its plan to curb rising inflation.
The drink prices order will be signed into law by the Minister of State with responsibility for Consumer Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt. It is understood it will be retrospective to the beginning of June.
The order will be more extensive than previous price control measures in that it will cover drink sold in hotels as well as rural and urban pubs.
The order will be for six months and will be open to review at the end of that period. Mr Kitt informed representatives of vintners' groups of the move last Monday and will finalise the legal details with officials today.
The measure in effect means consumers cannot face any price increase of alcoholic or soft drinks sold in pubs or hotels anywhere in the State until the end of the year.
Mr Kitt is also expected to announce tomorrow a doubling of the number of inspectors to monitor and enforce the new order. He is also adopting a tough policy on the prices display order which requires publicans and hoteliers to display clearly a full list of drink prices.
The Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, has already initiated legal action against 25 publicans for failing to display a price list. The director is on record as saying she would adopt a tough policing on any new price order on drink.
It is understood that rather than enforce specific price on various drinks, the Minister believes the best way to reduce the price of drink is through competition in the pub trade which will open up when the Intoxicating Liquor Bill comes into law.
The new measures are expected to be criticised by the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA), which represents Dublin publicans, and the Vintners' Federation, which represents country publicans.
Last week the LVA warned that a price freeze would not help inflation and urged the Government to reduce the excise paid on drink instead.