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LAX ALCOHOL-SALES LAWS and high wine taxes are turning penny-pinching diners into a legion of “handbag drinkers”, restaurateurs claim.
The submission from the lobby group representing the sector comes from a wide-ranging pre-budget pitch to cut down the threats to Ireland’s rebooted tourism industry.
The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) said there should be a massive cut to taxes on wine along with better regulation of cheap alcohol sales in supermarkets to protect the sector.
It also said the government needed to step in to tackle a growing chef-shortage “crisis” in Ireland and immediately create 1,000 workplace apprenticeships to fill the shortfall.
The RAI wants the special VAT rate of 9% for food and drink suppliers to be kept in place for the next six years, as well as a cut in overheads and regulations affecting restaurants.
A nation of “handbag drinkers”
RAI chief executive Adrian Cummins told TheJournal.ie that restaurateurs were finding groups of diners smuggling cheap alcohol to their tables and then making their own mixers to cut their bills.
“It’s usually groups of six or more and stereotypically it’s young women … they’re bringing in cheap vodka and they’re topping it up with soft drink they buy at the restaurant,” he said.
Cummins said the government had done nothing to tackle the cheap availability of alcohol in supermarkets across the country and a minimum price needed to brought in, along with laws to tackle below-cost sales.
“They’re often selling it for less than we can buy it for – so obviously there is a problem there,” he said.
The RAI has also called for the budget to reverse the “savage increases” in excise duty on wine, which it said should carry the same 9% VAT rate as restaurant food.
The excise tax on wine has been increased in the last two budgets – up €1.50 per bottle since late 2012 on top of the 23% VAT level - and is the highest rate of any country in the EU.
A chef crisis?
The RAI said the shortage of chefs across the country had reached “crisis point” and the problem was threatening the whole tourism sector, which has added nearly 24,000 jobs since the low VAT rate was brought in to help stimulate business in 2011.
It wants a training fund to be set up straight away so employers could fill the “huge demand” for chefs of all levels.
Cummins said restaurants had been advertising for chefs but were struggling to get the applicants they needed because not enough students were being taught the trade.
“The problem is that the colleges don’t have enough spaces being created so that we can get the chefs we need,” he said.
READ: Authorities ‘should offer compensation to restaurants’ over water restrictions
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Loads of restaurants in edinburgh advertising BYOB and free corkage now to encourage people in … Which is a great offer!!!
there’s one or two in Tralee. Was at an open mic in a restaurant last week and the owner let us bring cans in.
There’s a few places in Dublin doing the same- mostly Asian resturants. :)
It depends on the type of restaurant
If it’s a pile em in and then them over place byob is fine
If it’s a fine dining type place that’s not going to work:
Normally much higher food/staff costs
Less seating
Lower turnover
Milano Limerick charge ~€9 for a bottle of Peroni beer – I’d nearly buy a man-bag and drink out if that to spite any Restsurant that sets out to rob their customers with excessive pricing on that scale…..
This was pretty much par for the course in Sydney back in 2002-3 which is over 10 years ago. It’s a joke that it isn’t more widespread
Don’t hear of that happening too much really. I’d prefer to see maximum price introduced for soft drinks, especially in pubs. The fact that soft drinks are almost as expensive as alcoholic drinks is hardly helping Ireland’s alcohol problem.
Soft drinks are more expensive by volume in most cases. A 250ml bottle of coke in most pubs is at least €2.50.
I recall going to pubs and paying a max of 25 pence for blackcurrant and tap water. In some places it was free. Cheep night out for me :)
Cramming glass after glass of sugar-laden soft drink down you gullet all night may keep you sober, but it will still destroy your health. Don’t be fooled.
*your gullet
Eh, do you not realise beer, wine, larger and cider is packed with sugar too?
Exactly.
Try change every second drink to a sparkling water with a slice of lime.
yet even they cost around €3 in temple bar anyway
NIH, I know we are supposed to be up in arms about soft drinks these days, but really, a couple of small glasses of coke on a night out are exponentially healthier than a feed of beer.
Really the whole soft drink panic is a bit overblown. We had dodgy soft drinks when I was growing up (80s and 90s) but there were no fat kids around. Why? because our parents only gave them to us on special occasions.
Wine has about 0.8 grams of sugar per glass. Negligible. Drink away
“They’re often selling it for less than we can buy it for – so obviously there is a problem there,” he said.
Then go buy it in those shops.
It’s illegal for them to do that. That’s the problem.
Exactly how is it illegal to buy from a supermarket and resell in your restaurant?
Loose alcohol sales laws???? I’ve yet to go to a European country with laws stricter than ourselves, all it’s done is turn us into a nation of binge drinkers instead.
Nail on the head!! Longer drinking hours might let people relax a bit more when they’re drinking, no?
Don’t think longer hours would help – there is a genetic mutation among many of these islands (I also include English, Scots etc) where a sizable proportion of the population cannot socialise without effectively falling on their backsides and are not happy having a drink at home until they are unsteady on their feet and have to almost climb the stairs on all fours.
Many younger readers may wonder what the problem is with this, however when middle aged and simply wanting to catch up with family and/or friends it becomes a pain in the backside always having to endure stupid drunk conversations and assist people home – or worse having to endure female family or friends who decide that every social event is an excuse for becoming blotto and stupid with ‘what do people think of me’ type conversations or worse taking offence at innocent comments (often deliberately for attention). Its not pleasant for others to have to deal with amateur alcoholics among their circle everytime they go out, it doesn’t make for a good night and the narcissism which comes out following too much drink can destroy what would otherwise be a good night out.
As I say – it will hit you in middle age when all you want is a decent night out for a meal with friends, a good chat and laugh – but sadly so many don’t seem to have grown up from their teenage or twenty something years and longer or shorter hours wont change the way these people drink.
This is something you don’t see so much outside of the Anglo Influenced Countries.
the ‘getting blotto’ would pass after a few months, max a year or two. we should aim to be like our eu counterparts; 24 hour bars would stop the 1:30am panic to “get as many jagerbombs into ya before the bar closes” mentality. (i use quotations because ive heard lads say this, at the bar, in front of me! refused straight up!)
Shorthand for ” We want a fastrack back to the exorbitant profits we made in the Tiger years but we want to do it on the back of the taxpayer and not by any effort on our part”
I dunno, it’s not easy to make money in restaurants. They make most of their money in wine and the like so it might make sense just to put up prices on food and do corkage.
The lesson there must be ” do your market research before you set up”, there is a limit to the number of similar businesses any market can stand so unless you have an outstanding product or s catchy gimmick, chances are you will fail in a saturated market.
Ah the Crouching Tiger Hidden Naggin trick
Special interest business group calls for protectionist measures to help their unsustainable business model compete. Capitalism in Ireland.
A bunch of lads who make ridiculously big margins are annoyed that guys that make tiny margins have a bigger volume than they do. Gasp! Some groups of young women have always acted as the article describes, it predates the recession and was probably worse before and is actually getting better now. If retail pricing went up on booze, restaurants would just put up their pricing more.
The price of drink in the pubs and restaurants is a rip off.
‘Chef shortage?’, I’m a chef for 20 years and I’ve applied for endless amounts of jobs and have not got any replies at all.
They probably mean a chef shortage on JobBridge.
Chef sauce shortage
maybe the pink hair puts employers off, just sayin…
If someone wants to have pink hair and despence ‘chef special sauce’ then be it, please dont discriminate. Dont judge a chef by his hair.
Peter, I don’t think I’d fancy finding a luminous pink hair in my soup :)
Collar and cuffs dont match, it ill be fine tho.
These are the same people who go up North and buy cheap wine and then sell it to you 3 times the price.
They don’t need to go up north, lots of wholesalers more then happy to deliver it down to your restaurant! :P
the guy must run a classy restaurant if their customers are smuggling in booze.
Eat and drink at home, it’s cheaper. Dunnes stores are giving 25% Bach on every 4 bottles of wine purchased at the moment and for every €50 you spend you get a voucher for €10 to be used by 30/9/2014. The wine is already discounted and is of good quality with well known labels.
25% Bach, a classic offer!
It’s boring drinking at home on your own.
back not Bach
Hic no it’s not I can see 2 of me and we are both sloshed !
very good!!!!!
I don’t know anyone that would smuggle drink into a restaurant. Cheeky naggin into nightclubs in my student days yes but never a restaurant!
So allow people bring in their own wine so they don’t have to buy their highly inflated prices eh eh why doesn’t the restaurant bring down their wine prices and make a smaller margin
I would eat out more if restaurants were cheaper
Lower prices higher demand more profits it’s pretty basic economics which the pub trade ignored for so many years and died a slow death
If they are selling it for less than they buy it, then why don’t they just buy it off them??
“They’re often selling it for less than we can buy it for – so obviously there is a problem there,” – Utter B*ollocks. If it’s such an issue bring down the price of alcohol in restaurants. I don’t believe shops are selling alcohol for cheaper than wholesalers.
“Hand bag drinkining” has been a feature of Irish life since I was a very young person indeed. In fact, I can recall refusing to attending any gathering with a certain woman who would not only bring in her own drink, but would then steal the pub/restaurant glasses afterwards. Quelle horreur.
Had a surprise 40th party for my mum a good few yrs ago. Her friends not only smuggled In their vodka, but also gift wrapped a six pack of coke to mix it with!
should have BYO like they have in Oz, although what was once no cost now corkage to open what you bring is on the rise, still cheaper option though and keeps the restaurants full and busy.
I run a place (Italian) and do BYOW (wine) as I felt that the days of charging inflated prices are long gone. I keep costs down and don’t even charge corkage. The problem in Ireland is that quite often people don’t know when they have a good thing. I must get through more covers, to make up for the lost income on the wine, and therefore must do sittings. This leads to two problems however, people will often bring numerous bottles and will not leave at the time requested. They seem to feel they have paid their money and have a right to sit for over an hour after their meal, despite the time slot being mentioned at booking. It is mostly groups of women who linger, and they get pissed off when we mention we need the table back. I’m sure at times it makes for bad mouthing afterwards, despite a lovely meal and €20-30 a head.
No win
Its not simply a BYOW type problem (as you set out Kevin) – anyone in the business of facilitating Irish people socialising knows the Irish are a breed apart in terms of adhering to vacating tables or closing time and it doesn’t matter whether they bring their own or you sell it to them.
Throughout the continent the self professed friendliest people on the planet (the Oirish) are dreaded at closing time – its impossible to clear the premises, there are arguments and even ‘argy-bargy’ – you’ll have a single table of Irish drunks in a bar in Prague, Vienna or Budapest, it will be past normal closing time, the staff will be exhausted, last orders will have been called an hour earlier, but it turns into a nauseating game in which sing-songs are started, staff are ignored and everything ends with bad feeling.
everybody knows that restaraunts are the worse offenders when it comes to ripping people off who purchase a bottle of wine….instead of the restaunteur buying wine just offer corkage fee and let customer bring their own.that way restaraunt wont be getting ripped off by those greedy wholesalers .and if you believe that wholesalers are ripping restaraunteurs off your clearly living in cuckoo land………guarantee that if govt removed the tax on wine the same lobby group would tell us that the reason the price of wine didt come down as it was the only means of making a profit……..
Australia has loads of BYO restaurants. I see no problem with it.
How sad and desperate are people to want alcohol that much that you need to bring it in your handbag. Whats wrong with just having a couple of drinks? I also agree that soft drinks are too expensive.
“It also said the government needed to step in to tackle a growing chef-shortage “crisis” in Ireland and immediately create 1,000 workplace apprenticeships to fill the shortfall.”
are you high?? chefs are one of the main graduates who are forced to leave the country to find a decent career, in fact hospitality staff are treated better abroad than we are here. any graduate from a hotel school becomes part of the ‘generation immigration’ .
Chef shortage- it’s a horrible job!! Hot kitchen, long unsociable hours standing, stress, crazy colleagues, low pay…..for some they love it, the buzz, the team, the creativity and you would have to coz it’s hard hard work and not appreciated enough….that goes for all catering jobs. And everyone’s a “foodie” these days too, You know so much about food go open your place!!!
Some restaurants need to buck up their ideas and stop going on like the world owes them a living.
if people feel like they are getting good value for money they will return and tell their friends about the place too but if they feel like they’re getting ripped off then the opposite will happen.all the restaurants have to do is look at what happened with the pubs and how the years of ripping off punters finally came back to bite them in the ass.
Simple solution, stop over charging for alcohol. The poor RAI and the vintners of Ireland can’t full a pub or restaurant. I don’t think either industry has dropped any prices since the recession, certainly not the vintners. Sure keep things the way they are and everything will be grand.
alcohol is already a rip off!
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