A man has saved "roughly €700" by stocking up on Guinness cans the evening before minimum unit pricing kicked in.
Brendan spent around €400 on buying 500 cans of Guinness in his local shop and estimates the same amount would cost him €1,100 now.
Brendan spoke to RTE Liveline about why he stocked up and said minimum unit pricing is "discriminating against the lower incomes".
He told Joe Duffy today: "I just found that I'm in receipt of social welfare and it's kind of disproportionately affected me.
"I had my savings so the day before the minimum pricing came in, one of the smaller retailers had a special offer on Guinness, it was a 12 pack for 10 euro.
"I totally stocked up, so I have enough to do me for at least a year. I probably got about 500 beers.
"A friend of mine, we took two trips in the car and I have them in the porch here."
Brendan said he "got a few funny looks alright" in the shop.
"I can't remember the exact number (that the cans cost), about four hundred odd euro.
"And I reckon the following day, that same amount would have cost about €1,100, so that was a saving of roughly €700 for me.
"I'm in receipt of social welfare so that's nearly a month's income."
Brendan said the measure is discriminating against those on lower incomes.
He said: "I just find it's discriminatory regulation on the poor because I don't know if they carried out any conclusive studies that alcohol doesn't affect wealthy people, it only affects lower classes. Because there's no other measures brought in to roll it out across society.
"It's just discriminating against the lower income, the poorer people. Especially through Covid-19, because I've been very isolated over the last two years and not taking any risks."
Brendan said he hasn't gone inside a bar or restaurant since Covid-19 began and doesn't want to.
Instead, he prefers to have two friends at his house for drinks and food at the weekends but the increased prices will affect that.
"But that's my social thing. I only have two people into my house on the weekends, two friends, who have food, look at the sporting events and have a few beers. That is going to be seriously curtailed, for me with the current prices."
To get the latest breaking news straight to your inbox, sign up for our free newsletter.
