A TOUGH warning to publicans that the price of the pint might be controlled by regulation was given by the Government chief whip.
Mr Jim Higgins said that the obvious method of price control was through self regulation, to ensure that the common good was the priority of everybody involved from the point of view of the publican and the consumer.
"But at the end of the day, if regulation is what is required, regulation is, in fact, what will be invoked in this particular case.
It was in everybody's interests to pitch the price as much as possible "within the grasp of the common man". He was replying to Mr Seamus Brennan (FF, Dublin South).
Mr Higgins said the price of the pint was a Government priority. "The pint of plain has a very real and symbolic place in Irish life ... The Taoiseach himself has taken a particular interest relating to the recent attempt by publicans in Dublin to increase the price."
The matter was raised at Question Time by one of the House's non pint drinkers, the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, who asked Mr Higgins to outline the level of increase in its national average retail price in the past five years. He replied that it was 5.3 per cent in 1992; 4.9 per cent in 1993; 4.6 per cent in 1994; 2.5 per cent in 1995 and 2.3 per cent last year.
He said the increase was, by and large, in line with inflation. "But can I also say that from the point of view of the actual pricing policy itself, I don't think any blame attaches to the Government as such, apart possibly from 1994."
He outlined how the pint had been treated in Budgets by successive Ministers for Finance in recent years: 1992 and 1993 no change, 1994, an increase of 3p, inclusive of VAT; 1995 to 1997, no change. Ms Harney estimated that, by her calculation, the pint had, gone up by 19.6 per cent, which was almost double the increase in inflation.
