Sir, – Like Richard Willis (Letters, March 23rd), I’ve often paused with a coffee in one hand and a delicious custard tart in the other to consider how such items can be so much cheaper in Portugal compared to Ireland.
The ingredients of water, coffee beans, sugar and milk cannot explain it. The minimum wage difference probably does though, at €740 per month in Portugal as opposed to over €1,650 in Ireland. Given the prevailing reality of Irish property prices, the rents paid by business operators will inevitably be lower in Portugal too. And costs like insurance, considering our litigious tendencies, will be lower, while we can presume that less is spent in heating in such a warm climate.
I can ultimately explain away the price difference. But how they make such tasty custard tarts I’ll never understand. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
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