Ireland is the most expensive European Union country for alcoholic beverages and the second-most expensive for food and tobacco, new figures published today show.
The figures compiled by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, show that the price of alcoholic beverages in the Republic was 181 per cent of the average across 27 EU countries last year.
Ireland surpassed Finland (170 per cent), the United Kingdom (152 per cent) and Sweden (145 per cent), while the lowest prices for alcohol were in Bulgaria, where they were 69 per cent of the average. Slovakia (72 per cent), Hungary (77 per cent) and Lithuania (79 per cent) were also cheap for alcohol.
Ireland was cheaper than only one country, Denmark, for the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages. While prices in Denmark were 142 per cent of the average, Irish prices were 125 per cent.
Finland (120 per cent), Sweden (119 per cent) and the United Kingdom (113 per cent) were also expensive. The lowest were Bulgaria (56 per cent), Lithuania (64 per cent), Poland and Slovakia (both 67 per cent).
Bread and cereals were 21 per cent more expensive than the EU average in the Republic, while meat was 29 per cent more, and milk, cheese and eggs costs 126 per cent more than the average.
Meat was most expensive in Switzerland, where it costs almost double the EU average, and it was also costly in Iceland (189 per cent), Norway (182 per cent) and Denmark (149 per cent). Lowest-priced countries for meat were Bulgaria (48 per cent and 50 per cent of the average in Lithuania.
For tobacco the highest price levels were in the United Kingdom where smokers are dishing out more than twice the European average, followed by Ireland where costs were 86 per cent higher than the average. Tobacco costs were significantly lower than average in Latvia (28 per cent), Lithuania (30 per cent), Romania (32 per cent) and Estonia (41 per cent).
Labour's spokeswoman on consumer affairs, Kathleen Lynch, said the figures offer further evidence of the extent to which Irish consumers are being ripped off when it comes to the cost of food items.
"We need to know why Irish consumers are facing prices for foodstuffs that are far higher than those in other EU countries where workers are earning comparable rates of pay," she said in a statement.
