THE RIP-OFF CULTURE that exists in Galway during the races can only be described as “utterly disgusting and opportunistic and extremely short-sighted in these toughening times”, writes Joe McElwee, a businessman from the city. In the middle of race week, McElwee rang a hotel in the city which he uses frequently for business purposes. The corporate rate is approximately €68 per night, he says, but the price he was quoted for a single room on the night in question was €299. He gave his name and the name of his company and pointed out that he had at least 15 of his clients stay in the hotel over the past year alone and asked if he could get a better rate, “but the answer was an emphatic no”.
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Bad news in today’s paper for motorists and for people who like to stay warm:

Motorists and consumers face further increases in the price of petrol and home heating oil in the next few days as the Republic’s major fuel suppliers move to boost wholesale prices.

Petrol will increase across the board by about 2.3 cent a litre plus VAT of 21 per cent, bringing the rise to about 2.8 cent and adding €1 to the cost of filling the average car’s fuel tank.

Home heating oil products are likely to jump by more than one cent a litre, increasing the cost of filling domestic heating fuel tanks by about €100.

Diesel will go up by anything between 0.6 cent a litre in Maxol forecourts and 1.06 cent a litre in Shell and Statoil service stations.

A survey comparing Tesco prices in Ireland and the UK caused a bit of a stir when it was released by a rival supermarket in Britain last week.

It showed that Tesco stores in the Republic were on average 15 per cent more expensive than in the UK. The reaction from anyone with even a passing acquaintance with Irish prices probably stood somewhere between “Only 15 per cent?” and “So what’s new?”.
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Eircom is to increase its prices for telephone customers from the end of July the company annouced yesterday evening at the exact time that every national newspaoer and TV station was entirely focussed on make up Bertie Ahern’s new cabinet. Line rental is to go up by €1.18 euro while local and national calls, the minimum call charge and directory inquiries calls are also set to rise. Eircom defended the price hikes and said that they weren’t nearly as high as gas and electricty price increases we have had to endure in recent months. That may well be true but it seems like a ridiculous defence to put forward.

We were delighted when Brian from Galway recently sent us a couple of tickets for the Galway vs Mayo match in the Connacht Championship. Our joy at the unsolicited freebie was short-lived, however, when we realised that the match was over and he had sent in the tickets to illustrate a dramatic rise in the cost of supporting his team since last year.

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Sherry FitzGerald is to increase the fees it charges for selling houses by 50 per cent because, it says, that the property market “has changed so much over the past year that it is only possible to continue a high-quality service with increased fees”. The average increase from 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent of sale price will add €2,000 to the cost of selling a €400,000 house. Initially, I was absolutely outraged by this incredibly shameless and completely indefensible price hike but then I read a letter in The Irish Times which showed me the error of my ways. I can’t link to it here - at least I can’t without charging you to access it! - so I will paste it below.

Madam, - I was surprised to hear that one of the country’s leading estate agents had raised its commission on residential sales by 50 per cent. Only 50 per cent? Surely, with the massive and long-running downturn in the Irish housing market, estate agents must be experiencing extreme hardship. Is an extra 50 per cent really enough?

JOHN HEALY, North Brunswick street, Dublin 7.

It is fair to say that when Aer Lingus announced it was to charge people up to €15 for pre-booking seats on short-haul flights within Europe earlier this month, it received a fair amount of negative attention.

“What’s next?”, fumed one correspondent to this paper’s letter’s page. “Billing per minute for use of the lavatory? Per-second billing to use the reading light? Flat charge for using use the ‘call attendant’ button?”

While his anger is perfectly understandable, the correspondent might perhaps have been better off keeping schtum and not giving the suits in Dublin airport fresh ideas for generating revenue. Loose talk costs money, especially when airlines seem to be constantly scrabbling round for more so-called extras that they can charge us for.

In the last couple of years, while the base price of most airline tickets out of this country has fallen significantly, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of stealth charges. As well as taxes and airport charges, there are baggage handling fees; more stringent excess baggage charges; transaction fees; boarding fees, seat booking fees and high administration fees for simple transactions - all on top of the savage prices charged for the most miserable of sandwiches.
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Aer Lingus has announced its intention to charge passengers as much as €15 for the privilege of choosing where they can sit on its planes. Rather than be dismayed by the new charges we should all be absolutely delighted because - according to Aer Lingus - they have been introduced, not as a cynical money making exercise but in response to customer demand. Today’s move follows the recent 25 per cent increase in the airlines baggage-handling charges which Aer Lingus introduced without any fanfare, just two months after they brought in the charges in the first place. Another move which, presumably, was prompted by customer demand.

Initially I thought the joint announcement from Apple and EMI that the record company was to sell its music through the iTunes store without digital rights management (DRM) anti-piracy measures was welcome news. Then I learned that EMI’s DRM free music is going to sell in the US at €1.29 per tune as opposed to the 99 cents that iTunes currently charges. Presumably we can expect similar price increases on the Irish iTunes website.

While it is increases in the cost of living that attract most consumer anger, the cost of dying is equally worthy of attention. According to a survey carried out by the Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI) 10 years ago the cost of a funeral in Ireland was anywhere between £767 (€975) and £1,475 (€1,870) depending on the location. Today, a similarly modest funeral in Dublin will cost at least €4,000 with many estimates putting the final bill at closer to €6,500. While prices are not so severe outside the capital, funerals will still end up costing anywhere between €2,000 and €3,500.
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