Drink prices‘ savage ’, says top vintner

July 1981

‘Savage’.

That was the initial reaction of Mr Michael Butler, Chairman of the Wexford and District Vintners Association, to the increases on drink prices imposed by the Budget.

‘With the prices as they are, tourists don’t bother with the pubs, so that leaves you with just local trade… and the prices are having an effect on local trade too, as people are cutting down,’ he said.

It went up last week, he said, but the publicans in Wexford did not take the full 4p ‘and now the Government come along and chop us on the head again’.

Speaking for the general body of vintners in Wexford, he said the publicans try and do the best they can for their customers, but the fact that 53p in every pound goes in tax makes that objective harder to achieve.

‘When I came to town first in 1976, just five years ago, a pint was just 27p, prior to the famous Richie Ryan Budget. At present, it’s between 74p and 76p. In September, it will hit the 80p mark,’ he said.

Regarding the prospect of people eventually having to pay a pound a pint, Mr Butler said that while some observers predict this won’t happen for at least another two years, he thinks it will come a lot sooner than that.