The ever increasing price of a pint has received a lot of media coverage recently, with €10 being breached in tourist traps, and €7 now seen as quite normal in most of Dublin. There's a significant price range available for the same or similar products though, ranging from sub-€3 pints in suburban Wetherspoons branches up to those tenner pints already mentioned.
But imagine if pints were price capped? It sounds like some form of wonderland (for the drinker) or dystopia (for the publican); but even if you're under 30 it actually happened here in your life time. Sort of.
From the mid 1960s until just in to 2001, price restrictions were introduced for periods of months to years, preventing or capping increases; and often reverting the price of pints, and other drinks, to a previous price.
Legislative Basis
The basic legislation used for imposing these caps was the Prices Act 1958, amended by the Prices (Amendment) Act 1965 - a wide ranging piece of legislation which also relied on the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1953. This allowed the control of prices on both national and local bases; for pretty much anything the Government of the day wished to do it to. Multiple Statutory Instruments a year were issued under these Acts until the late 1980s, with some - but far fewer - after that.
The general scheme of a liquor price restriction under the Prices Act was to define a date - somewhat prior to the announcement - which prices would be baselined at. A pub would be required to charge no more than that price for a period of time - either defined with an end date, or until the order was revoked.
This not only put a cap on the price of a pint, but also prevented pubs that were charging less than average from increasing their prices to match - at least while the restrictive order was in place.
Control Orders
The first price controls came in, nationwide, in November 1965, reverting prices on all alcohol products, and canned/bottled soft drinks, in pubs to the price as of May 1st 1965 - with an allowance for duty increases to be passed on.
These prices were held until June 1966, where 1d (1/240th of a pound) a pint was added to a range of named products. 2d a glass was added to most spirits in October 1966.
In April 1967, the baseline date was changed to April 1st, 1967 - I presume this was done to encompass products which had been introduced in the prior 2 years, as prices had otherwise been controlled during that time.
This order was revoked in December 1967.
Local price orders applying to tens of individual areas, ranging from as small as Mohill, Co. Leitrim up to the size of Galway come in over the years after 1967. I did not locate a nationwide, or Dublin relevant, order during this time period however.
A nationwide order, for pints and spirits, was introduced in March 1977, using March 11th as the baseline. Increases of up to 2p a pint were allowed in September, and another 2p a pint in July 1978. These July 1978 prices were set as a new baseline; one which would hold until these regular orders ceased in 1985.
Regular increases of 1p or 2p a pint were legislated for, with a more major change coming in September 1979 when nearly all of Dublin (Backweston Park, e.g. Weston Aerodrome; and "any part of the Urban District of Bray" were excluded, although the latter didn't cross the county boundary as far as I was aware) received an extra increase of 1p.
By March 1982's changes, the total allowed increase was now 51p, or 49p outside Dublin. Considering -if we trust that chart that loads of pubs have - the normal price of a pint was under 51p in July 1978, this price control legislation had allowed prices to more than double in under four years!
The final increase, in July 1985, allowed for 80p / 78p outside Dublin, to be added to the July 1978 baseline.
Controls on lager and spirits were removed in October 1985, and on stout and ale when the order was fully revoked on December 10th 1985 - with only overnight notice!
After 1985
There was a brief control of Dublin prices, excluding Dun Laoghaire Borough, from July to November 1988, at 22nd July prices. This was the last Dublin price control for nearly 12 years; however from March to October 1997, pint and spirit prices were set to a December 1996 baseline *outside* the four Dublin counties.
Final Hurrah
The most recent price controls were instituted for a brief period in 2000/2001, with pint prices rising rapidly. This was blamed on multiple factors - high inflation (5.6% for 2000), the introduction of a minimum wage for the first time in 2000, high economic growth (9.4% for 2000) and concerns about price gouging during the then ongoing Euro changeover process. Prices had been increasing for some time, with the first saber-rattling about introducing price caps being in December 1998.
Eventually these were introduced. SI 222/2000, set pub prices to those charged in that pub on May 15th, 2000 for a period for 6 months from July 6th, 2000.
On expiry of those provisions, prices increased immediately in many pubs, and despite the implications that it would be reimposed, within months the Minister had decided not to.
Future Controls?
The Prices Act was revoked in 2007 on the introduction of the Consumer Protection Act 2007; which provides the ability to set maximum prices during a state of emergency only.
