‘Rates Increased By 64% This Year’

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Update:

Businesses mull over arrival of Christmas market in Dublin (Irish Times)

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61 thoughts on “‘Rates Increased By 64% This Year’

  1. ZeligIsJaded

    There’s one particular issue with the Xmas Market at Stephen’s Green that I think people should be aware of.

    It’s sh1t. Stay away. Unless you believe nothing says Christmas like a scabby quarter pounder.

    1. Clampers Outside!

      The (Merry Fuppin’) Christmas Song

      Hotdogs roasting on an open fire,
      Revolution nipping on your nose,
      Water charge prices being sung by a choir,
      And Frozen dolls fought over by paedo-Provos.

      Everybody knows a turkey and some bint called Joan,
      Help to make Stephen’s Green bright.
      Tiny wallets with unpaid bills in overflow,
      There’s always JobBridge to set things right.

      Your wallet knows Santa’s on his way;
      Loaded with new bills and taxes for you to pay.
      And every mother’s child allowance will be gone,
      Just as Enda does his 2014 swan song.

      And so in this offering, an austerity phase,
      To kids from one to ninety-two,
      Don’t fight back or the govt will have you hazed,
      A very Merry Fuppin’ Christmas to you

  2. JimmytheHead

    was just wondering yesterday why the f*ck didnt they put it somewhere that needs extra people clogging up the streets, the stalls are a joke too. mainly just tacky decorations and im sorry but theres nothing christmassy about hotdogs cooked on an open fire.

    but all of this is irrelevant because WOK N ROLL ARE AMAZING!!!!! pad thai > life

  3. TheDude

    So when one is going for dinner in the Saddle Room one might be tempted to just go grab a shack burger instead?

    1. lolly

      well if you were going to go to say Hatch and Sons or any of the 50 or so restaurants in that area and you walked past say Pieminister and got tempted by one of there (admittedly quite tasty) pies you might decide to go sit in Stephens Green instead with your pie and a can of coke. this is hardly fair to the local businesses who paid huge rates and provide long term jobs. Christmas is most of the profit for the year for food and drink businesses.

      1. ArtVandelay

        Since I walking by the hot dog shack, I got a hot dog. I wasn’t going to pop into Hatch and Sons. Conversely, if I was meeting a mate for lunch, I wouldn’t say “let’s grab an overpriced dog and stand in the cold getting jostled by tourists”

  4. Parky Mark

    I’m glad the restaurant business owners have an issue with this. Maybe they could also explain why they feel the need to increase their own prices over Christmas while also dropping their service, at a time when they have increased trade anyway.

    1. Jess

      Didn’t you watch prime time the other week? Restaurateurs are all on the bread line, thats why they can’t pay their staff properly and their bruschetta costs more that the hourly minimum wage

    2. Padi

      Can’t say I have noticed that myself. I have lined up a few dinners and lunches for work and social over the next month and have found some of the best restaurants have decent set menu prices. It’s usually the wine choice that makes an average dinner very expensive.

      1. lolly

        and profit margins on wine have been drastically cut by the massive increases in duty in 2 of the last 3 budgets. hard to find a drinkable house wine under €30 these days – further damaging our image among tourists.

        1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

          Erm, all wine is drinkable, really. It’s just a question of taste. Plenty of nice picpouls, etc, for 27 snots that I’ll happily drink down.

      1. All the good ones fly south for winter

        So you won’t be investing in the Newland’s cross flyover Christmas market then?

        One pile up is all we need to get started.

    1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

      They had a Christmas market in Fitzwilliam Square a few years back. It was a really nice market, actually. However, if memory serves (which often it doesn’t) it was the year of the brutal snow so I think it died a bit of a death.

      1. Bejayziz

        It’s a great spot for a market and I imagine it would be a beautifully atmospheric for a Christmas market….the one on the Green is awful, had high hopes when i seen it going up, sadly disappointed which is usually the case in this city…whats christmasy about bratwursts and crepes?

        Surely they could have found two dozen people to sell suitably christmasy wears

      2. Atticus

        That would’ve been a much better location, or even the cricket grounds in Trinity. Where they have it is stupid. Walked by it the Sunday before last and there was a queue to get in, ridiculous. Had a look again last Sunday and it was mobbed, just two lines of people shuffling along with no room to move.

        I suppose it looks nice on the Green but you could’ve got that look in plenty of places around the city, or for somewhere different they could’ve had it in Smithfield.

        1. smoothlikemurphys

          Just enter from the other end, or halfway down at the dawson street entry. Was there last Sunday and entered at Dawson street, had no idea at the time but when we left at Grafton street side there was a 30-min queue to get in. Madness.

          1. Atticus

            Oh that’s what I did. I walked along (or was herded along in the crowd) as far the bit where the stalls are on both side and then just gave up. Nothing much to see and it was just too cramped.

  5. JD

    If anyone has tried to run a food outlet with all the significant health, HR and compliance regulation not to mention the enormous commercial rates, you would have to have sympathy for the owners of restaurants. The people in the regulatory bodies or in the councils have never run a corner shop of any description and they would be well challenged to do so and make ends meet.

    1. El Cuno

      I actually think the restaurants have a point as well. They are hammered with very high (govt/council imposed )costs and a lot of red tape regarding employment and health & safety etc etc and then they invite in a load of God-knows-who to fry hot dogs across the road…..
      If a Christmas market was done well and attracted more people overall to the city centre, then it is a potential win-win. Anything that keeps people out of Dundrum etc the better. However, if it is done badly it is a lose-lose situation. Proper mix of products needed, burgers and hot-dogs not needed….

    2. martco

      spot on comment

      also imo that market is utterly utterly crap, Christmas market me hole, save up your money and go enjoy the real deal elsewhere

  6. Ray Luna

    I thought it was great and judging by the massive queues trying to get into it so do a lot of other people.

      1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

        Tell ya who loves cinnamon. Americans. They put it on everything. Literally everything.

  7. Corvo

    Is it really harming restaurants? If your going out for dinner your not going to change your mind and go for a German sausage instead just because the market is there.

  8. Outis

    I’m going to go be all controversial on Friday and go to the markets for a pre-dinner gluhwein, then to a local restaurant for dinner and then, low and behold, back to the markets for a nutella crepe. Scandalous, I know! But, christmas isn’t christmas without gluhwein and nutella crepes.

    Btw, I hope the markets get bigger next year and expand to spots on both sides of the city. Having lived in Germany for a few years, the Christmas markets are a great part of the season and they are usually city wide rather than confined to a small section.

  9. Carole

    The Stephen’s Green market is woejus. There is no atmosphere (unless you count the suffocating smoky fumes from the foot stalls); it’s claustrophobic & far too narrow. I shuffled at a snail’s pace from one end of it to the other (only because I was corralled in by barriers), tripping over buggies & covering my face to try & avoid the billowing smoke. A large percentage of the huts are food outlets, but apart from mulled wine, there’s no uniquely Christmas food on offer. As for the rest of the offerings – a couple of craft stalls & the usual tat.

    The thing I found most concerning was the fact that the poor horses are still in their usual place. I always feel so sorry for them, but they are having to breathe in all that smoke (yea, I know I’m going on & on about that smoke).

    It is a totally unsuitable location.

    Bah humbug & rant over.

    1. Carole

      Probably fumes from the FOOD stalls & all (& they’ve obviously destroyed my one remaining brain cell). Double bah & humbug.

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