05.27.04
Expensive drink
Expensive Drink
Our drink his incredibly expensive and a good proportion of it is excise duty. “The rates of taxation on beer, wines and spirits in Ireland rank among the highest in the whole of the European Union, according to a study published by the European Commission yesterday. Ireland has the highest rates of excise duty on wine and sparkling wine, the second highest duty on beer after Finland and the third highest duty on spirits after Finland and Sweden.”
I do recall a FF TD of my acquaintance saying that the best way to keep immigrants out of the country was to have very high indirect taxes since then they couldn’t afford to live here. He specifically quoted Finland has having the right idea and remarking on their low immigration rate.
In addition to this outrage tho’ it should be noted that if I order a glass of beer it would cost around €2.75 (approx) and this includes tax. But there is no tax on a glass of mineral water which costs the same amount. Which means the publican is making a far bigger profit on the water. Interestingly,(or hilariously) the VFI (Vintners Federation Ireland) says they can’t encourage their members to reduce the price of soft drinks because the competition authority would accuse them of price fixing!