In January 2022, Ireland will adopt "Minimum Unit Pricing" (MUP) for the sale of alcohol. This legislation has been in the making for almost 5 years and was signed off by the government on the 4th of May, 2021
This means there will be a minimum price a retailer, bar, restaurant, or hotel can charge based on the grams of alcohol in the product.
How does it work?
For every gram of alcohol in the product, the retailer will be required to charge a minimum of 10c.
Each ml of alcohol weighs approximately 0.79g. This can then be used to calculate the minimum price.
As the minimum pricing is based on grams of alcohol, rather than drink type, it means that a bottle of wine that has 15% alcohol, will have a minimum price higher than a bottle with 12.5% alcohol.
In the case of wine, this is the minimum cost per 750ml bottle based on the % of alcohol.
To help work this out, we have built a calculator which you can access here: http://www.irishwinereviews.ie/minimum-unit-pricing-calculator
No wine which costs more than €8.89 should be impacted. So if you have your fav bottle of merlot that costs €12, it will still be €12.
The biggest impact which will be seen is for low cost spirits and beer sold in supermarkets.
For example, the minimum a 330ml bottle of beer at 4.7% will cost is €1.23, meaning you won't be able to buy a 24 pack of Miller for €15 euro anymore. Instead, a 24 pack would cost €29.52.
Why is this being introduced?
In Ireland, we know that alcohol abuse is a major issue. The government have identified that a large proportion of alcohol abuse is as a result of low-cost alcohol, mainly being sold in supermarkets.
The government believes that if there is a floor on the price of alcohol, it will reduce the number of people buying cheap alcohol and consuming it in a dangerous way and ultimately, according to the government, "save lives".