Freeze wheeze: Hats off to the Competition Authority for calling time on a publicity wheeze by publicans. The authority wrote to the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) giving them two weeks to lift a three-month-old voluntary price freeze.

“In the current climate, prices are falling. Why are they freezing their prices? They should be competing,” a spokeswoman for the watchdog said. The LVA and VFI hit back, claiming it “was always intended as a price ceiling not a price floor.”