HOW are you not at your wits’ end living in Ireland?
Every time you venture to the shop, the pub, the restaurant, the chemist, the doctor, your bank account is assaulted, quickly drained of any money you might have.
The cost of everything. Christ, it’s enough to drive you to drink.
Except the price of booze is likely to bankrupt you, too.
Diageo, the makers of Guinness, has put up the price of the pint yet AGAIN — the FOURTH rise in just two years.
From next week, an extra 20 to 30 cent will be slapped on a creamy.
Depending on where you live, you’ll be forking out anything from €6 to €11 (the extortionate price of partying in Temple Bar) for the pleasure of one drink.
Scandalous.
But before you blame the boozers, or Diageo for that matter, consider this: For every pint you buy, the government takes, between excise duty and VAT, 35 per cent in taxes.
So, if you pay €6 for your pint, the exchequer pockets a princely €2.10. Gulp.
The taxes levied by the State have decimated, and continue to decimate Ireland’s hospitality industry.
Everything in this country is so damned expensive because of the Government’s greedy hand.
Micheal, Simon et al claim we pay among the lowest taxes in the western world. That may be the case when it comes to your pay packet.
But they hide the fact they double dip your hard-earned cash with an array of indirect taxes on everything you buy.
When it comes to alcohol, the Government loves to fleece you.
Ireland’s excise and VAT duties on the demon drink are the SECOND HIGHEST in the EU. Only the Finns pay more for a drop.
Drink is an easy target for government gluttony.
The levy on a pint of beer in Ireland is ELEVEN TIMES higher than in Germany. Our lot grabs 55 cent in excise duty on every pint. In Germany, the finance ministry takes just five cent.
A pint of pilsner in Berlin won’t cost you more than €4. Here, well, you know how much you must pay.
It’s no surprise pubs are closing at an alarming rate.
When it comes to a glass of wine, start crying. Our government levies 80 cent in excise duty on EVERY glass of red, white or rosé sold in a restaurant or pub. Here, you’ll pay up to €8 for a glass of plonk.
Like a snifter of whiskey? Well, the reason you’ll pay more than €6 for a small glass of spirits is because the Government takes 60 cent a glass in excise alone.
EXCISE DUTY
Slap another 23 per cent in VAT on top of the excise cut and that’s why you’re being hammered for a night on the town.
Throw in pubs and restaurants’ wage, heating and lighting bills, high commercial rents and extortionate insurance costs, and you don’t have to be Einstein to understand why our pubs are up s**t creek without a paddle.
The governments of Spain, Italy and Portugal have a different view of drink.
They are among the 15 EU countries that levy NOTHING in excise duty on wine.
A glass of wine in Spain will set you back around €2.
Go to the Basque country, home of Rioja, and it’s even cheaper. Many places in cities such as Bilbao and San Sebastian sell a top quality glass of vino for around €1.50.
Their bars and restaurants are packed as a result. Nobody drinks at home.
By refusing to levy taxes on wine and very little on beer (just 5 cent), the Spanish government has created a vibrant cultural oasis centred around the bar and the restaurant.
As well as promoting thriving local neighbourhoods, the zero-tax policy of the Spanish state has created a booming tourist industry, too.
No such forward thinking among the drab grey men in Leinster House. Not a visionary among them. No sense of what is happening to our hospitality sector because of the high tax policies.
No understanding of what is quickly being lost forever.
The Government now has the drink and food industry firmly in a tax chokehold.
CULTURAL IMPACT
It’s a short-sighted, money-first policy that is destroying a cultural heritage that deserves to be protected and cherished. But the Government doesn’t seem to care.
Successive administrations have REFUSED to lower excise duties and VAT rates.
They don’t see any need to do it in the near future either, despite it being a no-brainer to do so.
Nightlife could enjoy a renaissance if excise duty and VAT were reduced to ZERO. The price of the pint would fall to less than €4. Imagine that.
Government ignorance is costing livelihoods. Its stubbornness is destroying a cultural gem. If we lose the Irish pub, we lose our soul.
And it’s happening before our eyes.
LIFE FOR YOUNG IS MISERY
THE richest little country on earth and 70 per cent of 25-year-olds live with their mammy and daddy.
Being “rich” means nothing if you can’t afford a roof over your head.
Which is why one in eight 25-year-olds now live abroad, and a 21 per cent don’t see themselves ever coming back to live in Ireland.
Why would they? To live in their childhood bedroom? That’s no life. No life at all.
The study of 25-year-olds by the Central Statistics Office is shocking.
Some 98 per cent of the survey’s 3,380 respondents reported being “somewhat” or “very concerned” about access to housing. Only 3.8 per cent of them owned their own home.
Two in three 25-year-olds report severe financial pressures. One in three said they had real difficulties making ends meet, while one in 20 (5.3 per cent) reported “great difficulty”.
Some 82 per cent of 25-year-olds have a job – and 60 per cent of them have a university degree. Highly educated and working, yet living miserable lives.
Among this age group, 31.5 per cent of women and 18.5 per cent of men suffer with depression or anxiety.
The failure of government to provide a life for our young is nothing short of a national scandal.
MARY’S SUPER
BRAVO Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Fein leader, for taking the Government to court to uphold the Constitution.
If she didn’t do it, no one would have.
The cabinet cannot have more than 15 ministers. But the new administration has 18 – three of whom are so-called “Super Junior ministers”.
This is against the law and should not be allowed to proceed.
The Constitution is the Constitution, after all. If the Government wants more than 15 ministers in its Cabinet, then hold a referendum to change the Constitution. Let the people decide.
Until then, Super Juniors Hildegarde Naughton, Sean Canney and Noel Grealish must be kept out of the room.
No more bending the rules to suit yourselves, lads.
BLUNDER WALL IS A BIG JOKE
THE Government (as well as fleecing us) loves nothing better than to WASTE millions upon millions on consultants and reports and €336,000 bike sheds and €1.4m security huts and €700,000 bus shelters and so on, ad infinitum.
This week, it was revealed the OPW (Office of Public Waste) spent an astonishing €490,000 replacing an “unsafe” wall around the Dublin HQ of the Workplace Relations Commission.
The wall is 70 metres long and is made up of bricks and mortar.
Ten grand shy of HALF A MILLION bucks to build a wall. Peak Ireland.
Ask any brickie how much he’d charge to build a 70-metre wall and if he came back quoting half a million euro you’d tell him to take a run and jump, wouldn’t you?
Well, it seems the Government (and they’ll blame some unnamed officials in the OPW) don’t care much for spending YOUR money wisely.
It cost them €240,000 to DEMOLISH the wall and to rebuild it. How in God’s name does it cost that much?
A live ESB cable and a leaking pipe were discovered during preliminary works on the wall, which led to extensive delays and added a further €250,000 to the final bill. Ah, here.
The OPW gave the ESB €54,000 to “redirect” the live wire.
They gave a further €61,000 to Dublin City Council to, eh, close off footpaths and limit parking.
Now, there’s taking the p**s and they’re taking the p**s.
MEL PIC WAS A SHOP
AMERICA’S First Lady Melania Trump released her “official portrait” on Monday.
The black and white image, by top snapper Régine Mahaux, shows Trump’s missus as a woman “in charge” – or so we have been told.
What’s obvious is that the photo has been heavily photoshopped. No way anyone looks like that in real life.
It was picked to pieces on Twitter/X, with one person writing: “How many filters were used for this? She looks like she just hatched from an egg. And her face is very crooked.”
Which may be cruel. She looked much better at Don’s inauguration, wearing that giant Hooded-Claw-like rimmed hat beneath which you could not see.
TOURIST RIP-OFF
THE ridiculous spending of public money isn’t just confined to Dublin.
Down in Bantry, west Cork some €670,000 was spent on erecting 20 tourist information signs, footpath renewal and a couple of seats.
As the council put it: “These include one large stainless-steel portal on Wolfe Tone Square, six totem signs, eight lectern structures and eight directional fingerpost signs.”
Sprucing up our towns and villages is all fine and dandy, but why does it cost an arm and a leg?
Bantry was chosen by Failte Ireland to test out a national scheme to promote tourist destinations.
If they’re going to spend €670,000 on one town, what’s it gonna cost to roll it out nationwide?
More than a billion, I’d wager.
