GONE are the days when you wouldn't expect much change from a €10 note when buying a round. Now, recession-savvy Dublin customers are shopping around and can bag themselves three pints for their tenner.


In a bid to tackle falling customer numbers, Ireland's bars have introduced a range of promotions and offers, and they are reaping the benefits.


Padraig Murray, manager of the Sub Lounge, next to Tara Street station in Dublin, believes "business has never been better". The secret of his success lies in the price of his pint, he says. All pints and shorts are €4, with cocktails a mere €5.


"At the time of the budget there was a serious and worrying decline in customers. We brought the prices down and we have had a very positive reaction, with people coming in shocked and aghast and very pleasantly surprised. Now things are going very well again," said Murray.


Murray is not the only one cashing in on the promotional bandwagon. Just a few minutes away in Messrs Maguire next to O'Connell Bridge, manager Michael Gallagher says his pricing of all homebrew beers at €4 has seen sales in the pub double.


"We are now shifting 65 kegs of stout a month, whereas it used to be around 40," he said.


While the Messrs offer extends only as far as its homebrews, the Odeon on Harcourt Street has gone all-out in its bid to boost trade. All pints and all shorts are €4 on a Friday, all cocktails €5, and you can expect a free bottle of wine if you and your group spend €45 or more on food.


"We are not packed to capacity, but these offers are keeping trade ticking over. They will stay for the foreseeable future and we're looking at doing more of the same kinds of promotions throughout the Premiership [football season] also," said manager Daire McLoughlin.


Another pub offering all-day drink specials is Sin é on Upper Ormond Quay.


On Sundays and Mondays, all pints of Guinness are €3, and on Mondays and Tuesdays all pitchers of beer are €10.


Stephanie Clark, a regular in the pub, says she is "impressed by the offers and the fact that the pub seems to have no particular niche".


Finally, if you want to escape the city centre to the suburbs and find yourself a quiet pint and conversation, Ireland's oldest family-run pub, the Gravediggers in Glasnevin – the pub that brought us the famous phrase to 'have a jar' – offers all pints at €4.30 at all times.


Manager Eugene Kav­anagh says that at his pub there is "no television, no live bands – just the art of conversation".