Sir, Mrs Siobhan Whitehead's letter (August 28th) is welcome. Allowing for the usual custom of supply and demand in business generally, generating high prices when the demand is high, I can recall some years ago that duty free prices were higher on Irish routes than on others to the Continent.
On enquiry, Sealink said: "We charge what the market will bear." In other words: the Paddies like their grog and don't mind paying more for it. This attitude overlooked one factor: it was not only Irish people coming home on holiday who were overcharged, but tourists visiting Ireland as well.
Correspondence appeared in the Irish Post in Britain, and eventually the Federation of Irish County Associations took up the matter. I think that did the trick, and it might do it again, if Mrs Whitehead and others affected follow the same strategy.
People in Britain often complain about the cost of getting here in the "high" season. For all that, they are our best customers by a long way. I don't think we can take for granted that they will continue to come, when they can get to other tourist resorts on the Continent for much less. We all know that the sea crossings are shorter, but that does not explain the difference in transport charges. Let us bear from the shipping lines, please, and may we be spared waffle. Yours, etc.,
Schull Books.
Ballydehob,
Co Cork.