Dáil Dining – Soup Up 50c, – Calamari Up €1.50, – Wine Heroically Holds the Line.
TDs and Senators have been hit with fresh price increases in the Dáil bar and Members’ restaurant, with higher charges for food introduced in November 2025, while the price of wine, in a brave display of stability, remained unchanged.
According to records released under FOI, the cost of a glass of the Oireachtas Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc is still €6.60, and the €25 bottle price (€60 in the Cashel Palace) also remains in place, proving that in uncertain times, some pillars of national life must not be disturbed.
Meanwhile, the food menu has not been so fortunate:
Members’ Restaurant: Tough Choices, like whether to get Dessert and Soup.
At lunchtime, soup is now €5.50, up from €5.
On the afternoon menu: Deep fried Calamari (with Lemon and Garlic Aioli Rose – a Dip that is great with Chips), from €8 to €9.50. A prime beef burger has increased from €12 to €13.80. [Surprising increase move, what with all this cheap South American beef coming into Éire].
Desserts were repriced to €5.80, up from €5.00, offering options including, Mixed Berry Crumble, Strawberry Cheesecake,assorted Ice Cream, or Fresh Fruit Salad “for the health conscious you understand”.
A Soup, Main Course and Dessert now comes in at just over €25, roughly €3 above last year’s prices, but still comfortably below what most people might expect to pay for an equivalent three-course meal in nearby rural Tipperary or indeed in Dublin 2.
In the evening: A Chargrilled Sirloin or Rib-Eye Steak with Fries remains €20.50; this follows a €2.50 increase late last year. Grilled Lamb Cutlets (côtelettes d’agneau grillées) come in at €16 having been replaced by pan-roasted lamb rump (often called chump) at €18.50, (latter a tender, flavorful, and relatively inexpensive cut, that combines the succulence of roasting with the crispy, caramelized crust of pan-searing).
Members’ Bar: Modest Increases, with a few “Steep” surprises.
More informal dining also saw price rises:
Lunch soup: €2.70 → €3
Smoked salmon: €10 → €11.50
Typical mains: €12 → €13.80
“Sweet treats”: €4.50 → €5.20
Evening menu increases included:
Gourmet Beef Burger: €12 → €15 [again surprising increase, what with friends in Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board and Dawn Meats]
House Chicken Caesar Salad: Possibly imported from the Netherlands, the UK, Brazil, or Thailand, €9 → €11.50. (Tough enough when one can buy a whole Chicken cooked and still hot in Dunnes Stores for €6.75).
Nevertheless, the ambience of the dining area remains reassuringly consistent: muted tones, soft seating, and that steady confidence of a place that rarely needs to check the prices on the street outside.
It’s the kind of place where the calamari is deep-fried, the questions are lightly grilled, and accountability is strictly off-menu, while the décor continues to project polished wood, clean lines, and an overall feeling that someone else is picking up the Tab, emotionally, if not financially.
In fact the room does what it says on the tin, while remaining dignified, understated and quietly insulated from the chaos of lunch with everyone beyond the M50 and the non-subsidised majority.
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