VFI chair rubbishes talk of €7 fleadh pints

Rumours of a €7 pint agreement for the duration of the fleadh have been rubbished as nonsense this week by the head of the Mullingar branch of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, Liam Gilleran.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner the day before Diageo announced that it was increasing the price of a pint of Guinness, Liam said that in the first place, it would be illegal for publicans to agree to price-fixing, and in the second, anyone charging that much would be competing against the rest of the town’s pubs who will be charging only the price they normally charge.

With just a little over two weeks to go to the fleadh, publicans around Mullingar are “calmer” about this year’s event having the benefit of last year’s experience under their belt, he says.

“If truth be known, we all know what we need from last year,” he says, adding that for Fleadh 2022, they were all on a learning curve.

“So for this year, we know what not to do.

“Most of us overstaffed last year and we just carried the extra staff because we just didn't know how busy we were going to be.”

The surge in emigration to Australia over the last twelve months hasn’t impacted on pubs’ ability to take on casual staff as there are always students looking for summer work, and one thing the learning curve of the last year demonstrated was that there wasn’t really a need for anything like the number of security staff engaged last year.

Also, the shift away from cash to paying by phone or tapping a debit card has meant ensuring they have enough card machines.

Another key difference between this year and last is that there’s more certainty about the amount of stock pubs need to have ordered in for the event: “All the breweries are telling us what we sold last year, so we just got exactly what we sold last year. From a stocking perspective, it's also easier because it's there in black and white what we sold,” says Liam.

Contribution

In financial terms, pubs upped their contribution to the fleadh significantly, Liam discloses, revealing that while last year they paid over €300 apiece, this year they are donating €500.

In terms of the overall community effort, pubs also contributed by ensuring their premises are attractively presented and decorated with impressive floral displays

“The council did a fabulous job last year and they have done a fabulous job again this year: the town is absolutely spotless. It looks absolutely gorgeous,” he says.

Cost

On the question of what pubs will be charging, Liam says that pubs all fix their own prices and will likely only have increased their prices from last year by around the amount added by the breweries over the last 12 months.

“We can't be accused of being a cartel on that one and we haven't been for the last 30 years. That's all old hat and gone many years ago.

“We don't sit down and chat about prices. That doesn't happen.

“We did have vintners’ meetings with [organisers] Willie Penrose, Joe Connaire, Colette Glynn and Declan Leonard, so we were all there discussing the good of the town and our contribution towards the town, but the drink is never discussed, nor the prices.

“Last year, I think, our prices were on average €5.50 to €6.”