The big breakfast bill
Cost of a full Irish rises as hospitality VAT rate returns to 13.5%
GRILL it or fry it, love it or loathe it, the traditional full Irish breakfast has long been associated with our hospitality.
But ahead of St Patrick’s Day, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has calculated that the cost of a familysized fry-up has risen almost a euro since last year.
Jason Keegan, owner of Jay Kays Café in Dublin city centre, told the Irish Daily Mail that he had to raise the price of a full Irish by €1 to €13.50.
However, he said his highquality ingredients continue to draw customers through the doors throughout the day.
He said: ‘Our footfall is very high which we’re very pleased about, but the sad reality is the price of running a restaurant or café continues to grow. Many people don’t realise the [hospitality] VAT rate being returned to 13.5% is having a big impact on the cost.
‘We charge €13.50 for our fry and if you take the VAT off that we receive €10, but it costs us €4.50 to put the food on your plate. But I would never compensate by buying lower quality ingredients or reducing the portion size.
Mr Keegan added that ‘there are also a lot of other places charging a lot more for their Irish breakfasts’.
The CSO worked out the rise by using the prices of some of the items it collects as part of its Consumer Price Index basket, to measure inflation. Anthony Dawson, statistician in the CSO prices division, said beans, hash browns and black and white pudding had been left off the plate. The sample plate, based on items the CSO does collect prices for, includes rashers, sausages, a half-dozen large eggs, mushrooms, and tomatoes.
‘Looking just at the cost for this family-sized fry-up, the price of these ingredients has gone from €27.20 in January 2023 to €28.03 in 2024, or up by 3.1%,’ Mr Dawson said.
However, it was also found that the cost of a large white sliced pan and 1lb of butter has gone down from €5.50 in January 2023 to €5.40 in January 2024, a 1.8% decrease.