You spot the prices, we ask the questions
A reader from Galway, Shane MacNally, has been in touch to draw attention to a little-known money-saving measure for train users across the country.
The Weekender fare card is offered by Irish Rail to all train users aged over 26 (a similar system is in place for those under 26) and could save you a packet. A regular return ticket from Dublin to Galway costs a hefty €40, he says, but the price falls to €25.50 if the ticket is bought with a Weekender fare card. The Weekender card allows rail users to travel the first leg of their journey on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and use the return ticket no later than the following Tuesday.
The cost of the Weekender, which is valid for one year after the date of purchase, is €7, so even if you use it just the once, you're saving a fiver on the cost of a return ticket to the west (the savings vary depending on the route). Use the card to buy a rail ticket to Galway once a month and you save nearly €160 in a year.
"You'd think that such a good discount offer would be promoted very heavily by Irish Rail," MacNally says, "but it is actually very hard to find any information about it, anywhere."
Certainly PriceWatch found it hard to find any information about it on the company's website and posters advertising the card are something of a rarity in train stations.
When asked about the absence of promotion for this consumer cost-saving offer, an Irish Rail spokeswoman accepted that the Weekender card has been under-publicised in the past but says plans are in, er, train to improve the situation.
"The system we currently have in place [to distribute the cards] is a manual one and quite time-consuming," she says, adding that the company is in the process of "modernising its systems and re-evaluating its fare structures". She promises that once new, more technologically advanced procedures are in place, Irish Rail will begin "re-promoting" its Weekender cards.
Until then, the only thing to remember is that you'll need to have a passport photograph about your person when buying your first Weekender card. Irish Rail staff will happily take their scissors to your expired card and recycle your picture from then on in.
• The cost of frozen pizza in Dublin 4 has left another reader feeling somewhat less of a good fella of late. It's the practice in Dubliner Emily Godson's house to abandon the home-cooked meal on occasion in favour of the convenience of frozen pizza. A Goodfellas ciabatta pizza, which sells in major supermarkets for around €2.70, is her family's current favourite.
"A couple of weeks ago I ran into Donnybrook Fair to pick up the pizzas for a quickie tea," she writes. At the checkout she was charged €12.87 for three pizzas, equivalent to €4.29 each, or an additional €1.59 per pizza on the supermarket price.
"I can understand paying a premium for convenience but was furious at this margin. In a less hurried state I would have refused to pay that much. It is annoying to feel that a vendor can just choose their price because they feel that they can get away with it because most of the time they do, alas."
When PriceWatch rang Donnybrook Fair to check this apparently unfair price, a spokesman said that the cost of the item in question was something he would have to look into before commenting further. "If the prices are wrong than we will correct them," he added.
What's more . . .
The price of prune juice
Mel Gannon, from Co Mayo, writes to complain about the price of Sunsweet Prune Juice in Ireland. In Tesco in the UK he paid £1.78 (roughly €2.67) for a litre. In Tesco in Castlebar, however, he's charged €4.35 for the same amount. "Since it comes all the way from California, it's difficult to see the reason for the hefty difference in price" between here and Britain, he writes.
If you notice a significant price increase or discrepancy, let us know by e-mailing pricewatch@irish-times.ie
