Pick a bottle of wine. Any bottle of wine. A decent, not too cheap Italian, say, like our last wine of the week for September.
Transport it to France via the UK; or Germany; or Tunisia; or all three of them, for all the difference this would make. And pick it up off the shelf in Carrefour for €7.50, at most. It would have cost you no more than €3 at the cellar door—and it will cost you €12 in Ireland, shipped in straight from Italy. Well €11.99, to dilute the shock.
We are used to complaining—but not actually doing anything much: "That's the deal. Get over it. No one's forcing you to buy the stuff." No use making a fuss over what we can't change, right?
Possibly. And the last revolutionary probably left for greener pastures North in the 70s. But there's one meaningful act of supremely rational defiance we can all indulge in without risking life, limb, or social embarrassment: Buy a more expensive wine!
Or, at the very least, stop trying to buy wine for €6.99. Unless it's on sale as a very definite loss leader—not one of these mythical half price €6.49 wines no one ever sells for €12.99—AND someone you believe tells you it's good.A quick glance below shows why. Because excise duty in Ireland is a whopping €2.46 per bottle (it is 6 cents in France, and non-existent in Germany), you will get all of 50 cents worth of wine in your €6.99 "bargain". Spend €17.99 instead, and the value of the wine in your glass increases tenfold.
Now, if you want to contribute €2.46 to an Ceann Comhairle's next overseas jaunt for a measly 50 cents of wine, I don't suppose there's anything anyone can do to stop you. But you won't be able to say you just don't know where the money went.
I'm sure he too thinks it's a bargain.
