A tenner for a pint!
Temple Bar publican says prices will have to go up to double digits if bars ‘want to keep in business’
THE price of pints will reach double digits if pubs ‘want to keep in business’, a Temple Bar publican has said.
People on social media were shocked after a pint of Rockshore cider cost a mammoth €10.45 with a meal in Merchant’s Arch in Temple Bar in Dublin.
However, while pints in surrounding pubs in Dublin City Centre are marginally cheaper, nearby Oliver St John Gogarty’s owner Martin Keane said that prices may reach €10 sooner rather than later — citing increasing costs of running pubs.
‘In the next couple of weeks or maybe just before the summer, they’ll reach the tenner,’ Mr Keane told Newstalk Breakfast.
‘Every morning I get up, things have increased. We’re crippled; our musicians have gone up 25% [in price] … Increases are endless and I can’t see any end to them at all … [pubs] just have to [increase the price of pints] if they want to stay in business.’ Despite the huge jump in prices, Mr Keane said his customers are mainly tourists who are more than happy to pay that price for a pint – while those who are local would like their pints a little cheaper.
‘Ninety-five percent of our business is from overseas… So, it’s not much of a comment about it but our own indigenous Irishman doesn’t really like it.
He said overheads for a publican in Kerry, for example, are a lot less than on in Dublin.
‘It’s a different deal altogether – there’s no comparison.’
During normal hours in Merchant’s Arch, a pint of Rockshore cider costs €9.45 – but you will pay €10.45 if ordering the drink with a meal in the restaurant upstairs.
Its main bar charges €9.10 for a pint of Carlsberg and €8.65 for a pint of Guinness.
A spokesman for the Licensed Vintners Association, which represents Dublin publicans, said: ‘The LVA does not comment on pricing, it’s a matter for the individual pub. As a trade association competition rules prevent the LVA from having a view on pricing matters.’
By contrast, the Clonliffe House pub at Croke Park said that they charge €6.70 for a quarter bottle of wine and €5 for a pint of Guinness.
One publican in central Dublin, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘It’s not tough out there for Dublin pubs as in they are are doing good business at the moment.
‘But the frightening matter though is our costs keep going up across the board which is a challenge. Wages, electricity prices, insurance costs, overheads… everything just keeps going up.’
‘There are a lot who are under real pressures at the moment, especially the ones that are foodled because there’s the VAT increase, it went from 9% to 13.5%, we’ve had a minimum wage increase, we’re having auto-pension enrolment is coming, and we’ve increased bank holidays, they’re all costs incurred by business.
‘Also on the back of that you have a situation where of the last four years, we’ve had restricted trade because of Covid.
‘That has obviously put a lot of businesses on the back foot. And if you’re borrowing, interest rates are particularly high as well. Then you go into the input costs which are getting higher and higher.. the price of pints, the price of energy have all increased, these are all inputs that are leading to higher prices.’
‘Every morning costs have risen’