Alcohol prices in Ireland may be about to fall

The sooner this happens, the better.

The cost of living in Ireland is at an unbelievable high, with horror stories of people paying extortionate prices to rent in Dublin being shared daily. That's without mentioning the almost impossible feat of buying property in this awful economic climate, with even things like groceries, petrol and the essentials nearly costing an arm and a leg. One thing that has a history of being highly priced in Ireland is alcohol, with many pubs charging between €6-€10 for a mere pint. Spotted on JOE.ie, it's welcome news that the price of alcohol could be about to drop, all thanks to the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland. The drinks industry lobbyers are calling for 15% reduction in excise in alcohol in the next budget, as they believe lower-costing alcohol would bring over tourism from Britain, whose sterling rate continues to decline steadily. They stated the reduction of the alcohol excise would balance out the negative consequences of British spending in Ireland following the disastrous fallout of the Brexit vote. Speaking to The Irish Times, managing director at Heineken Ireland and the chairwoman of DIGI, Maggie Timoney spoke of how a reduction in alcohol excise would be necessary to benefit future tourism rates.

"An alcohol excise reduction is a vital response to the new and immediate effect of the uncertainty caused by Brexit.

"Alcohol tax is a regressive and inequitable tax and ours is very high by EU standards.

"We believe that the particularly high Irish excise tax is detrimental to economic growth and economic activity. We would urge the Government to reduce excise by 15 per cent in October’s budget."

It looks like we'll be sitting tight until October then.