Gerry Adams mocked in Parliament for thinking wine costs £25
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was mocked in Parliament yesterday after declaring to the Irish house that a bottle of wine costs €30 (£26.79).
The controversial politician was ridiculed in the Dail during a debate on pension cuts in Leader’s Questions on Thursday.
Adams was demanding that the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar reverse a change to the State pension, which has resulted in 35,000 people receiving reduced payments.
Speaking to the house, Adams asked: “Do you accept that these people are entitled to full pensions?”
“I mean, €30 is a bottle of wine…” he added, according to the Irish Times.
In fact, the a mid-range bottle of wine in Ireland can cost anywhere between €8 and €14 (£7-£25), with the average bottle sitting at around €10 (£8.93), according to Nuembo, a user-generated database collating the cost of living around the world.
It only took moments for the dust to settle, before members of parliament began to jeer the Sinn Féin chief. Speaker Seán Ó Fearghaíl struggled to control the uproar from fellow members, who were heard shouting back to ask where Adams been shopping.
Irish members of Parliament and onlookers on social media took exception to Adams’ claim, suggesting the party leader’s tastes were rather more expensive than the average parliamentarian.
Tiocfaidh ar la-de-da. Laughter as Gerry Adams tells Dail that €30 will only buy you a bottle of wine. Fancy taste, @GerryAdamsSF!
— Noel Rock (@NoelRock) October 18, 2017
I feel aggrieved if I’ve to pay more than £7 for a bottle of wine. What £30 vintage is Gerry Adams toasting the return of direct rule with?
— Séamas de Faoite (@SeamasBelfast) October 18, 2017
Others, meanwhile, took pains to prove that Adams was on to something, at least when it came to Châteauneuf du-Pape.
@GerryAdamsSF chateauneuf de pape €32 they were wrong again laughing at u saying you wouldn’t pay that for a bottle of wine ‘ 🍷🍷🍷 pic.twitter.com/fJyUfo8fQ3
— Barry Burke (@Barryburke74) October 20, 2017
I am no fan of Adams but £25 for a bottle of wine in a restaurant is not that exceptional surely?
I don’t think it matters where in the world you are, I am from New Zealand. A bottle of wine purchased in a supermarket for about $NZ16 (£6- 8) could be $35 – 40 in a restaurant. So if Mr Adams goes out to restaurants often then he is probably right. Perhaps he needs to do the grocery shopping.
Surely this was – given the timing – a jibe at the Taoiseach for being found to have expensed 71 bottles of wine at €30?
https://twitter.com/PearseDoherty/status/922124247849414661
One thing is to be a “working???” politician – excellent salary plus, while it is another thing entirely to be a pensioner receiving far less and having had to work far more
years than Adams and company.