I hear Ireland, hurting a lot from banking snafus and economic downturn, has as part of its stimulus plan lowering the excise tax on booze - the reason given was that so many Irish were heading north over the border and into Northern Ireland to buy booze because it was cheaper there (wow - if booze is more expensive in Ireland than in the U.K. then it must really be expensive - Brits of course flock like lemmings to Calais just to buy cheap(er) booze.

Q - Is it wise to encourage the Irish to drink more by making booze cheaper?

It's not much cheaper, a few cents a drink.

The cross-border trade is huge, so it's not really a matter of encouraging us to drink more; rather it is to try us to buy what we do drink on this side of the border.

Hello Pal - When there this past May - touring Northern & the Rep.of Ireland, we were told not only are the 'southerners' flocking over to N.Ireland to buy booze, but families come to purchase their groceries and a load of other stuff as well.
We called in at an enormous Sainsbury's alongside the freeway between Dublin & Belfast that was certainly doing a brisk trade .

This reminds me of my daughter's in-laws. They live on Long Island. Several times a year they take the ferry across to Rhode Island, drive up to New Hampshire to buy tax free liquor.

The ferry costs about $150 R/T, then there is the gas on a 300 mile trip. They usually spend the night, so there is the motel costs and food.

I'm sorry, but if they aren't using the stuff to bathe in, I do not see how this comes out to be any kind of "deal" at all.



dave

This reminds me of Helsingor, Denmark. We were puzzled to see that the only stores in this town appeared to be liquor stores, and there were dozens of them. Then we took the ferry to Helsingborg, Sweden. The ferry was packed with cars and vans, which were all packed with booze being brought back to Sweden.

The Helsingor thing yes was striking to me too - tobacco and booze stores all along the High Street - and on the tuborg Brewery tour in copenhagen the old beer-bellied tour guide told a joke about the Swedes and booze - he said a Swede rebuked him for his prodigious beer drinking - and told him 'you have a real problem with booze'

and the tour guide retorted - 'no madame i assure you i have no problem with beer - i can get all the beer anytime i want' - referring to Swedes restricted hours of selling alcohol in state stores, at that time