'There are pubs that closed last night that will never reopen again'

Pub chiefs are meeting with the bosses of the three main banks in the coming days and are reaching out for similar meetings with the vulture funds as they seek emergency measures over publicans’ loans to help to ensure more businesses do not go under amid the Covid-19 lockout.

Donal O’Keeffe, chief executive of the Licensed Vintners Association — the LVA — which represents 550 pubs and 12,500 pub staff of a total 50,000 pub workers in the Republic who have been laid off since the weekend — said they need to strike agreements with the CEOs of AIB, Bank of Ireland, and Ulster Bank to see “how we can work together through this unprecedented, unplanned, and almost unforeseeable scenario”.

“We are going to work through the range of possibilities with them in the next two days with the chief executives of the banks looking to discuss the precise details of forbearance arrangements which will have to be provided,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

“These range from payment holidays, to moratoriums, deferments and paying interest only — it obviously depends on the nature of the debt whether it is mortgage debt or terms loans,” he said.

Mr O’Keeffe said he fears the closures will lead to pubs failing to reopen and that the crisis will become more severe the longer it lasts.

Clearly from today forward a critical issue becomes the duration of the closure. If we were closed to March 29 and got to reopen then it would be a manageable setback but if the closure went on for weeks and months the severity of that is far more acute.

“I have no doubt that there were pubs that closed last night that will never reopen again. And I have no doubt that the longer it goes on the worse it becomes,” he added. He said when the pubs have completed their meetings with the main banks that they will approach the vulture funds and he expects the funds to see “the position as clearly as we do”.

“With no business and no turnover, the payments can’t be made,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

But the three main banks we are meeting with this week have a dominant share of licensed accounts in Dublin and provide debt facilities but also trading finance.

"We are anxious to meet with them because we have had a monumental decision last night,” he said.

The pubs are one of the three major employers, along with restaurants and cafes, and retailers to be in the front line of the fallout measures brought in to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

Adrian Cummins, head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said they want to ensure all staff laid off secure some sort of payment over the next few months. “More can be done,” including a freeze by the Government of all sorts of taxes, including Vat, and payroll taxes, he said.

He also wants the banks to impose moratoriums on interest on loans and consider writing off debts when the emergency is over.

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