Customers ‘ripped off’ with 1000% soft drinks mark-up
A survey of 47 pubs in Dublin on Thursday found prices ranging from €2 to €4.70 for a glass of mineral water with a dash of lime.
The dearest price was in Ron Blacks on Dawson Street. That compared to the cheapest price of 2 in Kehoe’s of South Anne Street and The Quays bar in Temple Bar. However, that still represented a mark-up of 400%
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Phil Hogan described the prices as a disgrace.
“These prices are incredible. A bottle of mineral water is sold wholesale to a pub for approximately 40c per bottle yet in certain cases the customer is being hit by a 1000% mark-up.
“When it comes to buying soft drinks in Dublin the customer truly is being ripped off,” he said.
Mr Hogan said the excessive level of pricing for mineral drinks offered no incentive to those who acted responsibly as designated drivers and did little to encourage a culture of less alcohol.
In addition to calling for an end to publicans ripping off consumers of soft drinks and more encouragement of the non-alcoholic options, Fine Gael also called on the Government to reduce VAT on soft drinks to 13.5%.
“Currently it stands at the top rate of 21% because mineral waters and soft drinks were once considered luxury items. This is clearly not the case any more, despite what some pubs want to charge,” said Mr Hogan.
He said the Party’s new ripoff.ie website had been inundated with complaints of excessive drinks prices since it was launched last month. He urged consumers to contact the site with complaints so the information could be fed straight back into the political process.
“In this instance the Government can play a part, the publican can definitely drop their prices and finally the customer can send in their details to ripoff.ie so that we can put the pubs under pressure to reduce their prices,” said Mr Hogan.
A spokesman for the Licensed Vintner’s Association, which represents Dublin publicans, declined to respond to the Fine Gael survey last night.
