Minimum price for bottle of wine in Ireland set at €7.40 following new legislation

A bottle of wine cannot be sold for less than €7.40 in Ireland, following the introduction of a new alcohol law yesterday. 

The measure means that the Republic of Ireland becomes one of the few countries, including Canada and Scotland, to have minimm alcohol pricing, with the government setting a minimum price of 10 Euro Cents per gram of alcohol in drinks sold in shops from 4th January.   This means that a 12.5% abv bottle of wine is not allowed to be sold for  less than €7.40, while a beer can’t be sold below €1.70 and a bottle of spirits must cost at least €20.70.    

This makes Ireland’s least expensive bottle of wine around the same prices as the average price of a bottle in the UK, which curently stands at £6.18 in the off-trade. This also makes a bottle around 50p more than some of the cheapest wines that were availablie in Irleland before the new legislation took effect.  

The rationale behind the rise in price is to address problem drinking and to “reduce serious illness and death from alcohol consumption,” according to Stephen Donnelly, the health minister.   However, critics of the move say that it will not achieve the desired effect. Vincent Jennings,  CEO of Ireland’s Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, told Bloomberg that he expected people to “travel to Northern Ireland to buy cheaper alcohol,” meaning that “the health issues will remain”.

Irish drinkers already pay the highest rate of excise duty in the EU at €3.19 per standard bottle for wine, and twice that for sparkling wine. Cross-border travel between the Northern Ireland and the Republic could undermine the tax take from alcohol sales, according to a report  by Ireland’s Finance Ministry. Meanwhile, statistics from the Republic of Ireland’s Revenue Commissioner reveal that alcohol consumption levels in the nation in 2020 were just over 10 litres of pure alcohol per person, down 6.6% on the previous year – a fall-off one could expect to  be greater considering the pandemic-related pub closures for much of the past year.

Alcohol consumption in Ireland has stayed at around 11 litres per person since 2015 – the equivalent of 116 bottles of wine or 445 pints of beer per adult every year – although World Health Organisation figures show Irish per capita consumption to be more than 12 litres, ranking the nation 6th in the world.

Photography: Dublin street,  by Anna Church/Unsplash