Sir, - It appears Mr McCreevy may have forgotten the economics portion of his B. Comm. He claims not to understand "why drink prices continued to rise when the Government had not increased levies on alcohol since 1992". Let me explain. Publicans are not in business to be nice to consumers; they are out to maximise their own profits. In the heavily regulated environment in which they operate, rising demand for alcohol means the best way to increase their profits is to increase their prices. There is no particular trick to this: the rising profits simply reflect the return on capital from the pubs' licences, whose values are increasing with the potential earnings they represent. By not increasing prices in such an uncompetitive environment, Joe Publican would be throwing money down the drain.
Now, we know by now that the Government does not understand the term "lobby" or the concept of the brown envelope. Mr McCreevy or Ms Harney should therefore be advised that the most efficient way to bring down prices to a fair level is to ignore the squealing of the publicans and make licences available to any premises meeting fire regulations. - Yours, etc.,
Graham Copeland, University College, High Street, Oxford, England.