James Cox
Introducing minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol before the North could result in beer being up to twice as expensive here than in Northern Ireland.
That's according to a lobby group which has compared this weekend's alcohol prices in ASDA Enniskillen to prices here if MUP was in place.
Drinks Ireland say a litre of Bombay Gin in ASDA this weekend is €18.39 but would be over €29 in the Republic with minimum pricing.
Patricia Callan, director of Drinks Ireland, says there hasn't been an increase in drinking here to warrant bringing MUP in urgently.
“I don't think anything has changed to warrant this sudden rush,” said Ms Callan.
“For example if you look at overall alcohol consumption that's declined siginificantly here, so we had a decline of 6.6 per cent last year and that's the lowest level in 30 years, alcohol consumption now is 30 per cent lower overall than the peak in 2001 so there hasn't been anything that should trigger this reaction from Government.”
