Rural publicans warned on price increase

PUBLICANS outside Dublin have been warned to reverse the latest five pence increase on a pint of stout, if they want to avoid a Government-enforced price freeze.

The warning by the Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, follows an earlier controversy when a number of Dublin publicans increased their prices by a similar amount. He discussed the price rises at a meeting yesterday with the Vintners Federation of Ireland which represents 6,000 publicans outside Dublin.

The federation has said the reports of price increases were "sporadic" and not widespread. However, it is believed that almost every pub in Galway city has increased its price by five pence to £2 A number of pubs in the Limerick city area have also raised the cost to the consumer by five pence. There have also been reports of price increases in Waterford, which the Department is expected to investigate.

Several Galway publicans contacted yesterday by The Irish Times were reluctant to comment openly. However, one said he had done a check in the last few days and found that "the price has gone up everywhere". Most pubs had increased their prices in recent weeks and the remainder felt "a bit of pressure" to do likewise.

Commenting last night, Mr Rabbitte said: "I think the federation accepts that the same tax regime and the same inflation regime applies outside Dublin as in the capital. The same writ must apply. Therefore they have to roll their prices back."

The federation's president, Mr Paul O'Grady, and its chief executive, Mr Tadg O'Sullivan, who met the Minister, will report back to him on March 4th after a meeting of its national executive.

The non-Dublin increases were first reported last week by Galway by FM radio which received hundreds of calls from irate drinkers complaining about price hikes. However, Government sources said some non-Dublin pubs actually increased their prices the week before Christmas and others just before the Budget. A joint statement was issued after the meeting yesterday by the Minister and the Vintners Federation.

It said that "the Minister made clear that unless prices were restored to their November 1996 levels, he would proceed to make a Maximum Prices Order fixing prices at these levels. The federation undertook to recommend to its members the reinstatement of November, 1996 price levels immediately."