The chic Cafe en Seine, on the capital's fashionable drinking 'boulevard' on Dawson Street, lost no time in hiking up the price of a pint of porter from 4.90 to 5 last week after Guinness announced it was putting an extra four cent on the cost of a pint from 1 May.

The 5 price was during normal pub opening hours and was not a 'late drink', when pubs increase their prices even further.

Less than a mile away, Handel's pub on Fishamble Street, near Christchurch Cathedral, was still charging just 3.20 for the same pint.

The pubs right beside Cafe en Seine on Dawson Street, which are competing for the same custom, have stopped short of breaching the fiver mark . . . at least, for now. Ron Black's charges 4.70 while SamSara is getting close at 4.90.

Turning the corner onto Baggot Street, the favoured watering hole of the country's economists, Doheny and Nesbitt's, charges 4.20 while Foleys, which is frequented by officials from the nearby Department of Finance, charges 4.30.

Oliver St John Gogarty's in the heart of the city's nightlife district, Temple Bar . . . which plays host nightly to thousands of stag parties from the UK . . . is also still short of the fiver at 4.85.

Our thirsty TDs have one of the best deals of all. The Dail bar on Kildare Street charges 3.70 for a pint of Guinness to members and visitors, against average prices in the area of 4.20.

Unlike the Dail restaurant, the bar operates commercially and is not subsidised.

A Guinness spokeswoman said that the brewer had no control over what publicans charge for its world-famous product and could charge whatever they liked. But she would not divulge what Guinness charges the publican for a pint, saying this was "confidential information."

The spokeswoman could also not explain the wide divergence in prices by pubs less than a mile apart. "You have to take account of the ambience provided by the publicans as well as the cost of bar staff, " she said. "The average price of a pint of Guinness in Dublin is 3.70 and we believe that still represents good value."

The breaching of the fiver price barrier would not have any adverse impact on sales of the black stuff, the spokeswoman said, although she admitted that sales of Guinness plummeted by 9% in the last six months of 2005.

Outside the capital, a quick nationwide survey revealed that the 3 pint at O'Hare's pub in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, makes it one of the cheapest places in the country to enjoy a pint of our national tipple.

But proprietor John O'Hare told the Sunday Tribune that he has to push up the price to 3.10 from tomorrow after Guinness hiked its prices last week. He was, however, staggered that any pub could charge 5 for a pint of Guinness and get away with it. "Porter is porter, it's not champagne, " he said. "At 3, I still have a few pound left in the till for myself. I am not going broke and to be honest there are no publicans who are."

At 5 a pint, O'Hare said that he could certainly manage to make "a few more quid." It was mainly farmers who came into the pub and they did not have that much money. "If I charged 5 a pint here, I may as well close the doors, " he said.