Hotels caught upping prices

THE Director of Consumer Affairs is to prosecute two well-known Galway hotels for charging more than the displayed prices for specific drinks during the busy race week.

Tens of thousands of punters and tourists have been pouring into the city’s bars from the Ballybrit racecourse all week, celebrating their success or drowning their sorrows.

But Director of Consumer Affairs Carmel Foley’s announcement yesterday reveals that some licensed premises owners appear to have been taking advantage of their customers.

The prosecutions arise from visits by her inspectors to 20 premises around the city this week to check compliance with the price display regulations.

In one premises, they found that the price charged at the till for a pint of Budweiser was 30 cents dearer than the price on the comprehensive price list.

In a second hotel bar, the prices at the till for the full range of whiskeys available were up to 20 cents more than on the price list.

“Consumers have a right to know the exact price that they will be charged and it is an offence for publicans to charge more than the price displayed on the prescribed lists,” Ms Foley said last night.

A survey by the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs at last year’s race festival in Galway also found that prices had been inflated.

Two publicans in the city centre were found to have added 10 cents to the prices of a measure of whiskey and pints of stout, ale, lager and cider.