The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr John O'Donoghue, has called on brewers and the licensed trade to consider the "potential negative impacts" of proposed drink price increases.
Mr O'Donoghue TD said the increase may again raise the issue of the adequacy of competition in the drinks industry.
Minister O'Donoghue said that, in an era of rapidly increasing competition in tourism markets, it was clear that Ireland had a competitiveness issue around the cost of drink and eating out.
He said this was borne out "time and again" in visitor-attitude surveys and in the recent major review of Irish Tourism Policy completed by his Department.
"I would call upon both brewers and the licensed trade to seriously consider the potential negative impacts of proceeding with drink price increases which can only exacerbate our existing competitive disadvantage in this area.
"This sort of behaviour can only go so far before it begins to have possibly long-term negative consequences," he said.
