Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Brian's Big Budget

Well, Brian Cowen has taken time out from singing at fleadh cheoils in Offaly to finally take charge of the economy and is bringing the budget forward to Oct 14th. Poor George Lee is going to wet himself if he gets any more excited. Watch out for duty increases on wine, as predicted by yours truly.

Duty is already obscenely high and is driving people north to Newry and south to Le Havre to buy their wine. An increase will make a difficult winter even trickier for wine importers and the hospitality trade alike.

Don't do it, Brian - use your imagination and do something interesting to stimulate the economy rather than harking back to the 1970s and the Minister of Hardship etc....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Given that the last increase in duty on wine was over a decade ago, and that the health lobby are targeting any form of alcohol consumption, I think that wine is definitely going to get hit this time.

I reckon duty will go to at least €2.30, and possibly up to €2.50 per bottle.

Gabriel Cooney said...

I fear you are right....