GIFT OF THE GRAB

Hotels & hostels ramp up room costs in capital. VIP parade tickets also adding to expensé

- EMMA MCMENAMY and MICHELLE FLEMING

PUNTERS can expect a fleecing this St Patrick's Day with eye-watering prices for hotels and parade tickets.

Hotels and hostels in Dublin are charging up to €1,664 for a double room on March 17, with one B&B asking €941 for a room with an ensuite.

Consumer chief Dermot Jewell blasted the last-minute tariffs.

He declared: "Cead Mile Failte is right... if you have a few thousand to spend."

Dublin City Council was also accused of price gouging with a family of four having to fork out €1,014 to view the parade from the Emerald Circle grandstand.

DUBLIN City Council has been accused of St Patrick's Day price gouging ahead of our patron saint's party.

Festival organisers are charging up to €1,000 for a family of four to watch the city's parade from a grandstand.

And they want people to fork out up to €110 per couple to get into a market.

Justin Leonard from the capital's landmark fruit and veg market, between Capel Street and Smithfield, says it's "absolutely outrageous".

The council is charging €25 a head to visit the market on March 17, or more than twice that amount for a couple's "luxury package".

And fourth generation trader Justin, whose great grandmother Kate Leonard was the first fruit seller to take a stand in the Victorian market when it opened in 1892, urged the council to rethink its plans.

The historic site on St Mary's Lane has been empty since 2019 when it was closed for a planned refurbishment which has yet to happen.

Justin told the Irish Sunday Mirror: "This market was built for the people of Dublin as a free public market, a civic amenity, by Dublin Corporation in 1892.

OUTRAGEOUS