Pubs in trouble » »
1,500 bars closed since 2005 Industry urges booze duty cut
LAST orders have been called in many pubs with almost 1,500 fewer compared to 13 years ago, a study revealed yesterday.
And every county in Ireland has less boozers with a 17% fall in businesses nationwide over the same period.
Despite having the most pubs in the country, Cork saw a 25% decrease – the largest drop in the country – but rural areas were the hardest hit.
A report from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland found there were 7,140 pubs nationwide – a decline from 8,617.
Vintners’ Federation of Ireland spokesman Padraig Cribben said a cut in alcohol duty could reverse the decline.
He added: “While the Government committed to assist small rural businesses recover during the recession, business owners in the drinks industry were challenged by two increases in alcohol excise tax in Budget 2012 and Budget 2013.
“Our punitive alcohol excise tax – the second highest in the EU – slows the growth of these businesses and impacts their bottom line. DIGI is calling on Many bars are struggling the Government to reduce the tax. It will encourage the growth of our hospitality sector, return money to consumers and make us more competitive.”
“The number of pubs are down 17.1% in the period from 2005 to 2017 which is a worrying statistic. “Pubs are small businesses, mainly in rural Ireland, that provide significant employment and continue to create jobs. In Mayo alone, hospitality and drinks businesses enable 4,095 jobs while in Donegal, there are 368 pubs and 7,445 jobs supported by the industry.
“This demonstrates the scale of employment this sector creates rurally. The sharp decline in pubs is worrying.”
The figures are based on an analysis of the liquor licence figures published by Revenue – which tracks the number of premises that have publican’s licences.
Rural counties saw the most significant drop in pubs, which serve as a major source of employment regionally.
A total of 90,000 jobs are dependent on the drinks industry and the sector buys more than €1.1billion of Irish produce annually, exports goods worth over €1.25billion, and provides over €2.3billion in excise and VAT income to the State.
Wexford, Meath and Dublin saw the smallest decline in publicans’ licences.
billion – that’s how much hospitality spends on local produce each year