=margt1417=20=ale100===Sunday world, 2000-07-17
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=Pub spy. Our crack pint commando drinks with =the best and slates the rest
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=IT’S THE ‘GREAT CIDER RIP =OFF’=20
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=Brewery chiefs and crazy taxes blamed=20
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=On average a pint of cider costs THREE =TIMES more in a boozer than in an off-licence
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=Pub bosses have been accused of running a cider cartel after a survey =found a pint of alcoholic apples ist on average three times more in a =boozer than it does in an off-licence.
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A pint of Bulmers will set you back an average of just £1 at the =offy, but in a Dublin boozer you’ll fork out around £3 for the =same drink.
Furious cider shoppers throughout Ireland bombarded our special Pub =Spy drinjks hotline ro vent their fury at what many termed ‘THE =GREAT CIDER RIP-OFF’.
“I was in England  last week and I bought a pint of =Scrumpy in a pub just outside Bristol for £1.35”, Dublin =cider drinker Darren Murphy said.
=“£3 for the same pint in Ireland!… It is a bloody =rip-off. Pubs here charge just what they want,”he added.
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=Boozers
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But publicans blamed brewery chiefs and crazy taxes for the high =prices. They argue that the lack of competition in the drinks industry =means brewers can charge what they want for their products.
A special Sunday World investigation revealed that the price of a =pint of cider varies by as much as 80p in Dublin alone.
And we discovered that rural cider prices are on average 40p a pint =cheaper than in the capital.
Long Neck bottles of Bulmers, like lager long necks – are =the biggest rip off. =20
We found that in 80% of boozers that bother to stock them, a 330 ml =long neck bottle was MORE EXPENSIVE than a draught pint of the very same =alco apples.
The same long-neck bottle that retails at near £3 a throw can be =bought for just £1.35 in the off-licence. Even when government taxes =are taken into consideration, the mark-up is still phenomenal.
Our survery found the dearest draught pint is on sale for a =whopping £3.50 in The Morgue, Templeogue.
Next dearest was the pint of Bulmers in trendy pub Café on =Seine.
That’s if you order your sup before 11.00 at night. If =it’s after that expect  to be charged £3 for the privilege. =When asked why the price was put up after 11.00 pm, a barman said: =“The price goes up to pay the wages”=20. At the Bleeding Horse, a short bus ride from Café on Seine, a =reporter was charged £2.75 for a pint of Bulmers. After three pints =he was shocked to discover the price had gone up- by a staggering 25p a =pint.
“The price is £3 a pint after 11.30”, he was =told by a barman after almost choking on his Bulmers. Gives a whole new =meaning to the Bulmers catch phrase ‘Nothing added but =Time’=20. The cheapest pint of Bulmers in the capital can be found in the Harold =House on Clanbrassil Street. It costs justs £2.40 a throw. The next =cheapest we found was in O’Dwyers of Dunboyne. There a pint of =Bulmers costs £2.45. In nearby Maynooth a pint of cider in Caulfields will set you back =a fairly reasonable £2.50.
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=Outside
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Bulmers have spent a fortune advertising the pint bottle of cider. =The ad shows a contented punter topping up his ice-filled pint glass =with golden Bulmers time after time.
But cider drinkers, who phoned the Sunday World, are sick to the =teeth with being charged in average 40p more for the privilege of =drinking from a pint bottle. John Scullion from Athlone said:”=I am sick of paying over the odds for cider. I can get it for next to nothing in the =off-licence. Yet if I decide to drink in a pub I am fleeced”.
Scruffy Murphys on Mount Street was also very expensive for a pint =bottle of cider. It came in at  £3, 20p more than it costs for a =cider on draught there.
Just ten minuts from Scruffy’s the Harold House was serving =pint bottles for a reasonable £2.55 a throw – 45p cheaper.
At the popular Tara Tavern in Finglas a pint of Bulmers retailed at = £2.60 in the lounge. The pint bottle cost £2.95.
Outside Dublin, the price of cider dropped considerably. The =cheapest pint of cider we found was at the Clubhouse in Dromahair, Co. =Leitrim.
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=Tenner
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Owner Gerry Kelly serves up pint cans of Bulmers for just £2 a =throw. Five pints for a tenner.. not bad.
One of the cheapest draught pints of cider we found outside the =capital was at Baretts’s Bar in Ballinhassig, co. Cork. There a =pint costs £2.35, with a pint bottle selling for just £2.60. Very few boozers outside Dublin stock long neck bottles of cider.
Publican after publican said that punters were not stupid. If they =wanted a drink it didn’t matter what shape, colour or size of =bottle, glass or cup it came in.
In Dublin long necks are, in the majority of cases, more expensive =than draught pints. In Polly Hops in Lucan on Camden Street a long neck =before 11.30pm cost £2.90 –=20 15p DEARER than a draught pint of cider. After 11.30pm a long neck =costs an amazing £3.10. Amazing when you consider that we bought a =330 ml  long neck of Bulmers in an off-licence around the corner for =just £1.30.
We asked Bulmers to comment on the price of cider in pubs =throughout Ireland.
We also asked them to comment on whether they thought the lack of =competition in the cider market was driving the prices sky-high.
They never got back to us.
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