It’s good news for lushes, sots, drunkards, rummies, barflies and alcos across Ireland as publicans have announced a one year price freeze.

Anne Doyle gives vintners the thumbs-up

The gloomy economic outlook, rising unemployment, and more people opting to drink at home has put pressure on the industry to get revellers back in to bars. The Licenced Vintners Federation (LVF) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) claim that over 5,000 bars in Ireland will honour the deal.

Speaking to the Irish Sentinel, Gordon Lightbody, Chairman of the LVF said “It’s about time somebody stood up to those nasty brewers and the Vintners are the ones to do it. We need to move with the times and we need to show our loyal customers that we can provide them value for money.

So now when you go to a bar and ask for a pint of tap water with Blackcurrant cordial it’ll cost you the same €2.50 in a year’s time as it does now. A bottle of Stella that you can get for less than a euro in the off-licence will be €5.50 next December and it’s €5.50 now. A tiny measure of gin and a splash of tonic that costs the publican less than €1.50 but is sold for upwards of €7 depending on which bar won’t change in price one little bit. And when you’re in a late bar and the price of the pint goes up after 11pm then up again after midnight you can rest assured the prices will only go up by the same amount for the next 12 months.

I think people will recognise that we’re doing our bit for them and they need to do their bit for us by coming into town earlier and not drinking at home, the ungrateful bastards”.

But Arthur Smith of the rival Irish Vintners Alliance has called the measure a ‘PR exercise that only the biggest fools will fall for’. He said “Pubs have been ripping off people for years. Why would they change their ways now? I can tell you members of the IVA will not be taking part in this sham and we urge people to drink in our pubs because at least we’re not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence. A full list of them can be found on our website www.irishvintnersalliance.ie/pubs/prices/emptywallet/suckers”.

It’s good news for barmen though as their frequent complaints about being confused by constant price changes can now be properly ignored.