Minimum alcohol pricing is nigh

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121981042#Comment_121981042

Do we really need to play this game again?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120608934#Comment_120608934

You fell for some absolute brexit guff… and in 2023 no less….. HOOK! LINE! and SINKER! then refused to acknowledge your gullibility for nearly a year and now every time its thrown back in your face with easily retrievable receipts you play dumb…..

FYI it was fvcking nonsense

https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-crown-pint-glass-banned-eu-rules-5777946-May2022/

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121981877#Comment_121981877

Hanlon's razor :

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121981877#Comment_121981877

Check for yourself on lobbying.ie to see how many industry vested interests were lobbying for MUP prior to 2018. I've done it before and it's quite a lot. It's quite interesting that those responsible for the making and selling of alcohol were so in favor of a bill who's goal was to reduce consumption..... Almost as if that wasn't actually the goal in the first place.

Also his speech is rife with factual errors, yes consumption increase 2015-2016 but it dropped again in 2017 and had been on a continual decline since 2003.

Hilariously consumption rose substantially in 2022 after the introduction of MUP.

techman1

I heard a discussion on MUP on newstalk about a month ago. There was a guy talking about it and I think he was involved in bringing in MUP or was an NGO that supports it. He said that the MUP price is up for review in the next year and that it will more than likely be increased due to inflation. My question is who is over bringing in MUP, and who is involved in reviewing the price? Obviously people need to put the government TDs under pressure over this and not allow them to bring in yet more price increases. Very hard to find out any hard information on what government body or ngo is regulating MUP

dxhound2005

It's in the Health legislation. The Minister can make an order to increase the MUP. But not earlier than 3 years after the original MUP. After that he/she has the power under the legislation to change it every 18 months. Any change has to satisfy a number of clauses in the Act.

I see that the Scottish parliament voted on 17 April to increase their MUP from 50 pence to 65 pence from September 2024.

-=al=-

It at least seems to get questioned or queried in the Scottish parliament and it will most likely go up here at next available time.

Funny enough this news came out 2 days ago - https://news.stv.tv/scotland/scotlands-alcohol-deaths-worst-in-uk-as-rates-hit-record-high

The increase should help sort it 👍️

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122059219#Comment_122059219

Just another payday for the drinks industry.

dxhound2005

What would explain the fact that Scotland had a smaller percentage increase in deaths than the UK wide figure?

"There were 10,048 deaths across the UK in 2022, a 4.2% rise from the year before and a third higher than the number in 2019. Scotland had a slower rise than the UK as a whole but remains the worst-affected country for alcohol-specific deaths."

The health lobby in Scotland always recognised that they have a worse alcohol problem than other countries. The 65 pence MUP is only keeping up with inflation since 2018. They want it to go higher.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122058643#Comment_122058643

Obviously people need to put the government TDs under pressure over this and not allow them to bring in yet more price increases.

But that won't happen because nobody actually cares.

People have being saying for years here that there will be a public backlash and there never has been.

Because people are just not that concerned about the price of off license drink.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122060238#Comment_122060238

Absolutely. It's not an issue that people will protest over.

However it is an absolute joke of a policy. That much hasn't changed. AAI are no more concerned about your health or my health. They are a weird bunch of losers who want to stick their noses into private the lives of perfect strangers.

This was never about the health benefits of the nation. It was about trying to increase publicans profits by bringing off licenses sales closer to pub prices.

Leroy42

I don't think it is even that. This benefits the big producers the most. Henekin etc have, in one piece of legislation, effectively removed price competition from their segment of the market. And not only that, they have managed to make more profit off each can be doing so.

They no longer need to fear losing market share to the likes of cheap Lidl or Aldi imports. And most consumers will shy away from trying something new when the price is the same, much better to stick to tried and trusted.

It of course helps the vintners, for the reason you stated that the price difference is reduced, but such is the size of the price difference (6.50 vs 1.85) that that isn't going to be such a major issue.

Look at it this way. Every Christmas each producer had to enter into a price war to try to protect market share. Selling 18 cans for €15. Now they are guaranteed to get €33, €15 pure extra revenue for nothing

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122060238#Comment_122060238

Groundhog day.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122062176#Comment_122062176

And all the while people aren't drinking any less. Maybe taking more drugs though.

techman1

But I think it does have political ramifications all these nanny state laws. Look at the SNP in Scotland, they have now become highly unpopular in Scotland because of all this stuff. Now it looks like labour are going to regain alot of their old seats again from the SNP.

IIf It is brought up at council and European elections to put pressure on minister for health, otherwise they will just sneak in the price increase again

bluedex

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122062176#Comment_122062176

So basically, the AAI are really just the Useful Idiots for the big producers and the vintners?

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122074134#Comment_122074134

Yup consumption has been falling without MUP for 2 decades, AAI et al were used by the alcohol industry to give a reason to hike prices so as to help makeup for that drop in consumption.

dubrov

The funny thing is that MUP has almost certainly led to an increase in cross border purchases of alcohol. This in turn will appear as a large decrease in consumption in ROI and will be used to reinforce the perceived effectiveness of MUP

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122065651#Comment_122065651

Have Labour promised to reduce or abolish MUP?

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122075038#Comment_122075038

Ironically consumption actually went up in 2022 the first year MUP was introduced so using the logic AAI et al use of correlation=causation it could be argued it actually made things worse

techman1

AAi also trying to muscle in on the road safety debate and the liberalisation of opening hours. There is definitely a big campaign by these ngos to hobble this bill. They are being given loads of airtime aswell. The RSA have released statistics saying that a third of road traffic accidents are alcohol related and that the blood alcohol level was on average over 3 times the legal limit. What I would like to know is, what is the average alcohol level for people charged with drink driving. I suspect its on the very low end and close to the threshold thereby alot of people are being caught not much above the limit and that these people are not causing the accidents anyway, they would be more than likely still under the UK limit of 80mg . I suspect that the guards are shooting fish in the barrel by breathalising people the next day and are not out at 3am catching the guys causing all the fatal road crashes.

bog master

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076081#Comment_122076081

Certainly would be nice if the RSA published these statistics! However…..Access to road safety data

"We are in the process of reviewing
our road traffic collision (RTC) data sharing policies and procedures.
Record-level RTC data can't be shared until this review is complete"

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076081#Comment_122076081

Exactly what I suspect is happening too. Lazy Gardai catch a bunch of folk barely over the lower limit the following morning, yet SFA done about the people driving around completely pissed on the way home from the pub, actually killing people. I recall the coroner in Donegal (IIRC) attracting a bit of controversy at the time the limit was changed from 80 to 50 as he went to the papers highlighting the bodies on his slab were usually 200+, and not 50 - 80.

BraveDonut

A few weeks back a 15-can pack of Heineken in my local centra was €25.45.

Adding the stupid recycling tax made it €27.70

Yesterday they hit me for €32.25

I only noticed it when I got home as I tapped in the shop

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076764#Comment_122076764

The MUP price is €25.45.

The DRS deposit is €2.25 which in theory is refundable.

That's the cheapest they can sell it.

MUP price is the new "special offer" so the best thing to do is stock up at that price when it comes up.

There will probably be offers this weekend in some supermarkets.

You might even be able to avoid the deposit by buying glass bottles at the same price per litre.