Bad news for drinkers. FG/Labour to introduce minimum prices!

Chuck Stone

What's needed to tackle binge drinking and alcoholism is information campaigns and treatment.

30-40 years ago it wasn't a big deal when someone went for 4 or 5 pints and drove home.This is totally frowned upon now and happens way less due to a change in public attitudes and better policing.

n900guy

weeder wrote: »

how will this curb yoof drinking? the average teenage drinker feasts on dutch mold which last time i checked was 8 500ml cans for 8 euro, teen drinking levels will drop all over the country as the yoofs cannot find the 80 extra needed to get pissed :rolleyes:

It won't but the government will make more money in tax compared to the % reduction in consumption from the increased prices. That is the only objective. None of the policies on alcohol, tobacco or drugs have anything to do with public health or policing in Ireland: it's exclusively focussed on maximising revenue for what can be easily controlled.

The Maverick

Why the **** can't they show some balls and just call it a tax increase? Everyone knows the country desperately needs money, don't try and dress it up as protecting the poor teenagers.

If they were serious about stopping underage drinkers they would actually enforce the law as it stands. My town has a shop where it's common knowledge people under 18 can get served but no effort seems to be made to prosecute the shopkeeper.

Biggins

The Maverick wrote: »

...If they were serious about stopping underage drinkers they would actually enforce the law as it stands. My town has a shop where it's common knowledge people under 18 can get served but no effort seems to be made to prosecute the shopkeeper.

My own town too. A shop RIGHT in the middle of the town - been going on for 15+ years.
Not once has the owners been fined, closed due to their illegal actions or even had their hands slapped over selling drink to under-age teen.

RonMexico

Underage drinking is a handy excuse to try and hide the real reason for this - more money raised by the Government to pay off unsecured bondholders.

Fuck this place.

LighterGuy

This isnt about teenage drinking.
This is about getting more money. More tax. Just spinning it into "to combat underage drinking and people with drink problems" ...

Arianna_26

I can't see these minimum prices putting many people off tbh.

€15 for a bottle of vodka is still good value but sure I suppose the government have to be seen to be doing something without killing the profits completely.

So instead of pubs having to lower their prices, the government is just making it more expensive to drink at home.. It's a smart move on their part since price has almost no affect on demand.

ilovesleep

LighterGuy wrote: »

This isnt about teenage drinking.
This is about getting more money. More tax. Just spinning it into "to combat underage drinking and people with drink problems" ...

Now that we have established the real reason for this tax increase can people not boycott this and just don't buy alcohcol. Hurt them where it hurts - in their pockets until the government faces up to reality that expenditure is too much with over inflated celtic tiger outgoings which is going to have to be dug into sooner rather than later.

Boycott other taxes too eg stop smoking
Shop in second hand shops or online from the uk
Take the car of the road if you can and walk or use public transport
Get rid of the tv ridding yourself of the tv license

Any other such measures?

K-9

realies wrote: »

It only affects the price of cheap alcohol sold in the off-trade, such

as supermarkets. The vast majority of drinks sold in pubs and licensed premises is sold at a price well above the level a minimum price is likely to be set.

Alcohol-related harms cost the healthcare system

€1.2bn, while

alcohol-related crime costs €1.2bn.
• Moderate drinkers, i.e. those who drink within low

risk limits, are least affected

• Heavy drinkers, along with children and
young people, are particularly affected
• Small, independent retailers and off-licences put
on a level playing field with large multiple retailers
• It is likely that the decline in the volume of alcohol
sales will be more than offset by the unit/gram
price increase resulting in an overall increase in
profit for retailers
• Large retailers can raise alcohol prices to
the minimum price without running the risk

of losing customers to competitors*

Here is a link with more

http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=alcohol%20facts%20about%20ireland%202011&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CC4QFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Falcoholireland.ie%2Falcohol-facts%2Fminimum-pricing-gettting-the-facts-right%2F&ei=gd8JT8-WFIG3hQfPrpmPCQ&usg=AFQjCNG68Eil0pMFXYovBhh9apiLsHoQ4g

I can't see a 60c rise in a six pack making that much of a difference to alcoholics or teenagers intent on getting it tbh. There might be some small effect and because it's relatively revenue neutral and pubs gain and the big supermarkets don't suffer, all is grand!

Its a bit like smoking to me. 50c isn't going to make that much of a difference, people will go black market, go North, buyer cheaper products or just put up with it, double it and you might get a big difference.

Kind of agree with making the cheap vodka crap dearer! Smirnoff will love that as the cheaper stuff isn't worth a few cheaper difference.

Plus wine sales will increase more. Teenagers will just buy the cheapest alternative so fortified wine sales will go up. Getting more and more like the 80's everyday.

rasper

We've always had an alcohol issue throughout history the world knows that, we've never had money outside of the bubble years so what difference will a few euro make ,
I wad brought up at the end of the last recession miss 90s never any money but that never. Stopped us
It's another government swindel

cgpg5

Remember when I was underrage I didn't care what I spent on alcohol as long as I got it at the time Its only when I became a student that I started taking into account the prices. Tbh this won't help at all underrage drinkers will still spend whatever they have on their Dutch Gold and Vodka.

Icyseanfitz

if your going to do it at all do it properly for feck sake, raising the price of drink by 10c or 20c isnt going to make fcuk all difference when it comes to underage drinking, you want to solve cheap drink...make the minimum for a can like 3-4 euro and bring the prices in pubs down to match that.

It would be a pain in the arse if they did this (as im no man of money) but at least it would show that they are actually trying to do what they are saying they are instead of just speaking out their arse as usual

JONJO THE MISER

What a disgrace, wont affect me i think, i dont buy cheap drink anyway.

Liam Byrne

I never drank as a teen so the excuses re there being nothing else to do are cop-outs, plus there's the fact that those who drink underage have parents who obviously don't give a crap......it's not my job to pay extra just because they couldn't be arsed raising their child.

The bottom line is that making it more expensive for EVERYONE - even those of us who don't indulge in this crap - is pathetic and unfair.

It's the same stunt that they pulled with the drink-driving.....we all know ****wits who binge drink 10 or 12 pints and think it's macho, and many who drive home afterwards......whether the limit is 1 or 2 won't fix their behaviour but wallops the rest of us who never broke the existing law to begin with.

Joey the lips

Socialism rocks... Wave a couple of cushy jobs on front of the labour party and they sell there souls.

Bin charges.... Sold

House hold charges.... Sold

Water tax.... Sold

Beer tax..... Sold


Yip.... Socialiam is alive and well but not in the labour party...

Bandana boy

What upsets me most about this is that many business leaders have contacted the government explaining the impact this will have on the republics competitiveness with NI. This will lead to €100's of millions going into NI business's costing jobs and reducing the tax and VAT takes here in the republic.

Joey the lips

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

What a disgrace, wont affect me i think, i dont buy cheap drink anyway.

Thats a common mistake... once you introduce a min price then it causes the branded beers to go up. Most of the brewrerys that produce this cheap beer also produce branded beer. With a fall off in sales of the cheap beer they will have to raise there prices to counter this.

O and btw be under no illusion i blame labour for this.

K-9

Joey the lips wrote: »

Socialism rocks... Wave a couple of cushy jobs on front of the labour party and they sell there souls.

Bin charges.... Sold

House hold charges.... Sold

Water tax.... Sold

Beer tax..... Sold


Yip.... Socialiam is alive and well but not in the labour party...

Those taxes are pretty Socialist, that or high income tax rates instead.

LighterGuy

I suspect the people that supported the 10pm close of off-licenses will love this.

"please! wont someone think of the children"

Liam Byrne

LighterGuy wrote: »

I suspect the people that supported the 10pm close of off-licenses will love this.

"please! wont someone think of the children"

Ironically most of those saying that will be the absentee parents

Logical Fallacy

LighterGuy wrote: »

I suspect the people that supported the 10pm close of off-licenses will love this.

"please! wont someone think of the children"

Did anyone actually support that? Hell, even me and all my non drinking buddies think it's kind of stupid.

Mikel91

Curb teenage Drinking...Oh gawd they really are out of touch.

This reminds me of the time there was national worry on the radio over "Shag bands!" as if they were snapped,they proclaimed then the two teens would have to shag....Yet people just wore them for the craic,with the only people snapping each others bands being lads going "Whaey you have to sleep with me!"

This wont stop Teens drinking,as they will still want to get the drink no matter the price.The only young people its affecting are Students and those from lower income families.And seeing it start up already,its just going to encourage blackmarket alcohol.Quite a few students do this alreayd and even more will start doing it as well hah.

Teens will get drunk by whatever means they can,as they want to go bushing(Or knacker drinking as some weird counties say)
-
FYI for any person who says its only the teenagers of bad children than underage drink...Well yes you can say that for excess,you can say that about anything in excess but for the most part those that I know who didnt underage drink at any stage came from incredibly controlling parents,who for the most part gave their kids very little freedom.not saying this is the case for all,but from those I have seen it mostly has been.

woodoo

It might reduce the number of little s**tbags turning up to A & E after drinking themselves into a state.

gibraltar

It makes me sad that anyone would really think increasing the price will make any difference, saying that the price increase will put booze out of the price range of underage drinkers because they wont have enough pocket money is embarrassing.

When I was around 18 the price of beer went from about £2.00 to £2.25ish, so I went from getting 5 drinks for a tenner to 4 drinks for a tenner. End result I drank the same amount and spent more.

The price of booze in most of Europe is a lot less then it is here and yet they do not have the same problem that Ireland does, the price is not the problem.

Run_to_da_hills

Another reason for shopping up north.

bassy

Biggins wrote: »

Write-up in todays Sunday Times (England)

Summary of article (Cannot print article due to pay-wall copyright restrictions):

Our Irish Government is planning to double the price of the cheapest cans of lager, and add €4 to the cost of own-brand vodka, in order to curb sales of cheap alcohol to teenagers and problem drinkers.

Róisín Shortall, our junior health minister, is to include minimum price laws in a new public health bill this year.
He is also considering imposing a 55c per unit “floor” for alcohol — similar to the 45p introduced in a Scottish public health bill last November.

This would make it illegal for supermarkets and offlicences to sell a 500ml can of beer for less than €1.10, and introduce a minimum price of €15.40 for a standard bottle of vodka. Red wine could not be sold for less than €4.40 a bottle, while white wine, which generally has a lower alcohol content, could have a minimum price of €3.60.

Shortall says its “crazy” that young people could buy a “slab of beer”, 24 cans, or a bottle of vodka for €12.

---

So there you have it.

Someone gets more money coming their way.
Be it the vintners, the shops still selling off-sales and/or the government.
Meanwhile Mr & Mrs Joe Public gets hit in the wallet again.

FG I would expect this from - but from Labour too (they have gone a long way from standing up for the common Irish worker I feel - they have sold their soul to capitalism and political greed), making the average Irish worker pay more out of their pockets again!
I dunno - it don't sit right with me.

the kids will still buy it,no doubt about it.the will all chip in and purchase it.very same thing as doing away with the 10 ciggarettes,the will still buy 20 cigs and chip in if there is a few of them.or as it has done turn them to buying cheap contraband.
the government know this,but the ordinary man will suffer.while the fat cats reap more dosh.forget about it,the make up there own rules and can do what the want.

LighterGuy

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Did anyone actually support that? Hell, even me and all my non drinking buddies think it's kind of stupid.

More people than what you think.
Sure theres threads about the 10pm closure every once in a while here in After Hours. You always get a good amount of people that supported it. Always followed with "just buy your booze before 10 ffs!" :rolleyes:

woodoo

gibraltar wrote: »

It makes me sad that anyone would really think increasing the price will make any difference, saying that the price increase will put booze out of the price range of underage drinkers because they wont have enough pocket money is embarrassing.

It will affect how often they drink though if they don't have the money. It won't stop them getting smashed but it will stop them getting smashed 2 or 3 times a week.

RichieC

Weathercheck wrote: »

Because contrary to popular believe they are looking out for the well-being of their people.

They realise alcohol is a serious problem in this country that leads to various health problems including depression, suicide and leads to domestic abuse.

Perhaps your ignorance is why we have such a problem.

They probably had backroom debates about it in the in the Dáil pub. honestly weatherman, you sound so fking naive here its making my eyes water.