A MAXIMUM prices order on alcohol is being introduced in public houses outside Dublin because publicans in Limerick city have refused to reduce their prices to last November's levels.
The announcement was made by the Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, yesterday after he warned the Limerick publicans on Tuesday that if they did not drop prices a fixing order would be put into operation.
The order means that each pub must restore the price to the level charged last November.
The Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), which represents most publicans outside the Dublin area, "met Mr Rabbitte on Tuesday and told him that all its members except those in Limerick had agreed to reduce their prices. They asked him not to impose a price fixing border for 48 hours to enable them to have further consultation with Limerick members.
Mr Rabbitte agreed to this request.
When the deadline ran out yesterday, Mr Rabbitte announced that he would introduce the order.
He said: "My office rang the VFI before 1 p.m. today to confirm that I would make the order this evening unless the VFI's response confirmed that Limerick publicans brought back their prices to November 1996 levels. Since I have not heard from the VFI, I have decided to make the maximum prices order, to have effect outside Dublin."
The Licensed Vintners' Federation, which represents 600 Dublin publicans, agreed some weeks ago to reduce prices to November's levels.
Rural publicans have also agreed to bring down prices - by about 5p - but Limerick remains defiant. An emergency meeting of 170 members is to take place next week to discuss the Minister's action.
A former national chairman of the VFI and Limerick national executive delegate, Mr David Hickey, said yesterday that the Limerick members were very disappointed and felt "hard done by" because they were now going to be "controlled" at about 10p behind the rest of the State and perhaps as much as 30p a pint behind Dublin.
"The price differentials are getting wider and wider. To be commercially viable there had to be a good margin to run high-quality pubs such as Limerick has," he added.
The Competition Authority is carrying out an inquiry into the retail drinks trade following the increases before and after Christmas.
The Competition Authority can investigate allegations of anti-competitive behaviour, such as price-fixing or cartels. It can take civil or criminal court proceedings for breaches of the Competition (Amendment) Act.