Publicans say FG survey of soft drinks 'misleading'

A Fine Gael survey of the cost of soft drinks in Dublin pubs is "completely inaccurate" and "misleading to customers", Dublin publicans have said.

Publicans identified in the survey as charging the highest prices in the city for mineral water with a dash of lime cordial said the figures quoted were incorrect.

Of the 47 city centre bars surveyed on Thursday afternoon, five were found to have charged €3 or more for mineral water and lime, with one pub, Ron Black's on Dawson Street, cited as charging €4.70 for the drink - more than €1 above any of its competitors.

A spokesman for Ron Black's said the price quoted by the survey was not what the pub charged for a mineral water with cordial. "I don't know where they got their prices from. The price of mineral water is €2.70. The price is clearly shown, and is there for the public to see."

He added that the bar would charge €1 for cordial if a customer ordered it in a pint of tap water, but did not charge for a dash when mineral water was bought. "I don't think any bar in Dublin charges for a dash anymore."

Mr Tom Booth, the manager at Maguires, Baggot Street, where a mineral water and lime was found by Fine Gael to cost €3.45, said he was "100 per cent annoyed" by the survey.

"A Ballygowan is €2.55; we charge 90 cent for a dash, but not if someone is getting the mineral water or soda water. If someone is having vodka with half a glass of lime certainly we charge."

The price listed in the survey was "completely wrong" and misleading. "They are misrepresenting us when we're actually quite low in our prices for the Baggot Street area."

The Metropolitan bar at the Clifton Court Hotel, Eden Quay, was found by Fine Gael to charge €3.60 for mineral water and lime. The operations manager, Mr John O'Grady, said the drink was priced at €2.70. "We wouldn't charge for a dash; if it has happened it was definitely an oversight."

A spokeswoman for O'Neill's of Suffolk Street, where the same drink was cited in the survey as costing €3.40, said the actual price was €2.50, and the survey was "absolutely outrageous".

However, Fine Gael says it has retained receipts for the drinks to back up the prices it claims the pubs are charging. Party spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Phil Hogan, said the mark-up charged by pubs for soft drinks was "a disgrace".

"These prices are incredible. A bottle of mineral water is sold wholesale to a pub for approximately 40 cent per bottle, yet in certain cases the customer is being hit by a 1,000 per cent mark up."