Price Watch Conor PopeThe relatively high price of Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRTs) in the Republic has caught the eye of another reader.

According to Celine Jackson, 105 pieces of Nicorette chewing gum, each of which contains four milligrams of nicotine, will cost those trying to give up cigarettes €30, or 28 cent per piece in Irish chemists.

She points out that the same brand retails in France substantially cheaper.

Some 96 pieces of the gum cost €17, which equates to just 17 cent per piece.

"Yet our Government are the ones leading the way in the anti-smoking campaign!" she adds.

When PriceWatch contacted the Department of Health, a spokeswoman pointed out that NRTs are available free of charge to medical card holders who have a doctor's prescription.

"Other than that is is completely up to the manufacturers," she said. "They set the prices and we have no control over that."

What's more . . . Coffee shock: Chris Flynn writes to say that he recently had lunch in the Laguna restaurant in Dublin's IFSC where he was charged a "reasonable" €4 for a sandwich.

"However on the 19th April, having met a friend there for lunch we decided to have a coffee. When the waitress came down with a cappuccino and a latte she asked for €6.30 which shocked both of us, and we had to ask her to repeat the price. I find this price outrageous and wonder what other readers think?" Flynn asks.

PriceWatch contacted the restaurant and was told that its coffee charges reflected "the standard price in the area give or take a few cent".

Battery charge: A reader from Rathfarnham recently set about finding a jeweller to replace the battery in a watch and after shopping around found quite substantial price differences, with the larger shops charging more than the smaller ones. In one small, privately owned jeweller on Dublin's southside, TG Lockhart was quoted a price of €6 for the simple operation. This compares with a quote of €9.99 in a branch of a jeweller's chain.