Madam, – Bernard Cantillon (November 2nd) recommends a tried and tested method for reducing alcohol consumption: price inflation. It is unfortunate that he does not seem to have looked into what results this solution has yielded in the past.
Never in the long history of governments taxing alcohol has a lasting, or indeed significant, reduction in alcohol consumption been achieved by price inflation.
Irish examples include the 1989 increase in alcohol duty which resulted in a 4.28 per cent increase in alcohol sales and the 1994 increase, which resulted in a 1.99 per cent increase in sales (Source: HSE Report. Alcohol Consumption in Ireland 1986-2006). In recent years alcohol sales have been on a steady decline and are at a 10-year low despite the lack of any price inflation during that time.
Proponents of the price inflation method will doubtless argue that the problem is one of degree. The price wasn’t put up enough. What they fail to take into account is the futility of increasing the sale price of something one can purchase in bulk in Northern Ireland. – Yours, etc,