This one flew under the radar a bit over the holiday period, but my in-laws in Ireland let me know about it — in part because they were complaining about the price of beer going up.

At the start of the year Ireland’s government imposed a minimum unit price on alcoholic beverages, making them one of a few nations to introduce such a rule as a public health measure intended to curb binge drinking and reduce alcohol-related health issues.

The government said the measure was aimed at making cheaper, stronger alcoholic products less readily available, particularly for young people and heavy drinkers. It’s interesting for me because I spoke at length to former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer about this issue around a decade ago when the John Key government amended the Sale of Liquor Act. The Law Commission, which Palmer headed at the time, recommended minimum pricing for the very reasons the Irish government introduced it but that recommendation was one of many rejected when the amended act passed in 2012.

“This measure is designed to reduce serious illness and death from alcohol consumption and to reduce the pressure on our health services from alcohol-related conditions,” Stephen Donnelly, Ireland’s public health minister, said.

The rule requires a price of one euro, or $NZ1.72, per standard drink. When it comes to craft beer that minimum pricing isn’t going to change anyone’s drinking habits but it would certainly have an impact on people who are picking up slabs of “budget beer”.

I just did a quick price check on that category using a popular chain and then re-calculated the price using the Irish model.

Their minimum pricing applied here would mean a slab of 18 cans of 5 per cent Kiwi Lager would go from its current $24.99 to $38.70, a massive jump of more than 50 per cent. The calculation is based on 18 cans each with 1.25 standard drinks, multiplied by $1.72. And a case of 18 Lion Brown 440ml cans would jump from $30 to $40, not quite as drastic a price increase, but quite a hike.

Of course, any minimum price introduced here could have used a different formula but it’s an interesting academic exercise nonetheless.

There are many arguments against minimum pricing, the strongest being that it unfairly targets poorer people and those with an alcohol dependency.

But the flip side is perhaps illustrated in this fact, reported in the New York Times: that the biggest rush on Irish bottle shops before the law change came from students stocking up.