Dropping the price of pints and cigs in the budget and other nostalgia

veryangryman

Remember cowen took 5 or 10 cent off a pint in I think 2009? Seems so mad now but things like this would be a nice surprise for the average overworked Joe and Josephine.

Anyone remember other nice goodies like this in old budgets? I promise not to call you old!

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058307393/dropping-the-price-of-pints-and-cigs-in-the-budget-and-other-nostalgia

No, I don't. In fact I can't remember the price of the pint coming down...ever. And if it did, it was by an insignificant amount.

iamstop

I used to get 6 Scrumpy Jack for a fiver. Could have a whole night out (on the nack) for under a tenner, including 6 cans, bus fare each way and a bag of chips.

I do not believe for 1 second that publicans would pass on the reductions to consumers these days.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922902#Comment_120922902

Fridays were 4 scrumpy, a naggin of vodka and a 500ml of coke before the local gaa club bar , then off to the local "night " club aka disco.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922886#Comment_120922886

There was a single cut in the Cowen/Lenihan era. It was generally passed on; and then the CCPC or its equivalent at the time slapped the publicans for being a cartel for putting prices down. They don't care when they put them up!

Pretty certain tobacco duty has not gone down in the past 30 years if ever; nor will it ever.

odyssey06

With the SSIA Charlie topup you could buy many pints / a horse / trip to vegas...

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922944#Comment_120922944

Well, looking further into this, Cowen did make a cut in excise duty. But whether that had any real significant impact on the price of the pint down the local is another matter. I absolutely didn't notice any real change to my pocket. Because it would have stayed with me, like I remember McCreevy's tinkering with tax bands that led to a slight increase in my take home pay.

I do, however, recall a whopping 70 cent on a fiver increase for a pint that happened after Covid, whatever percentage that is. And god alone knows what the percentage increase was for a pint in town, Because the cost of Guinness now is near enough to 7.00 in a lot of places whereas before it hovered around 5.50.

And it's been steadily going up for some time now. All blamed on "transport costs", even though the price of oil has been coming down since March.

Thing is, while there may or may not have been a very slight decrease in the price of the pint at the tap nearly 20 years ago, 99.9% of the time it goes up and stays up irrespective of any "justification" for the increase.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120923002#Comment_120923002

I definitely remember the reductions.

All the recent increases have been the brewers - that Cowen cut was reversed and the duty has stayed untouched since, for ~14 years or so.

crosstownk

There was a reduction in VAT around that time, I think. I do remember the price of a pint reducing by 5c.