1,500 pubs closed in seven years, claim vintners

UP TO 1,500 pubs have closed since 2001 due to Government taxation and regulation policies, publican bodies said yesterday.

The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) based the figure on an analysis of the number of accounts held by the major drinks manufacturers who supply pubs across the country.

They said there are now only 9,500 on-trade accounts, down from 11,000.

The LVA and VFI said the industry is facing significant challenges on three fronts:

* The high rate of tax on alcohol (Ireland is the most heavily-taxed alcohol market in Europe).

* Continuing growth of home drinking.

* Declining overall consumption — down 7% per adult so far this year.

In a joint statement, Donal O’Keeffe of the LVA and Padraig Cribbin of the VFI said that the taxation and regulation policies over the past decade had put pubs at a disadvantage. They called on the Government to reassess the cumulative impact of these policy changes.

“The on-trade sector accounts for tens of thousands of jobs, supports manufacturing jobs in brewers and distillers and plays a key role in our tourism industry and in sustaining communities in rural Ireland. However, the strength of the sector is now under more pressure than ever before and jobs are being lost,” they said.

The publicans said that they were fearful in particular of the sector’s ability to live with further tax increases in the forthcoming budget. “The old reliables are no longer reliable. This industry is facing major challenges and it will struggle in particular if the current high level of alcohol tax is increased again in the forthcoming budget,” they said.

Meanwhile, Bulmers managing director Aidan Murphy has claimed any increase in the price of cider in the budget could seriously challenge the cider industry and could have implications for the number of jobs provided by his company.

Mr Murphy said, while the company was not asking for the excise duty on cider to be reduced in the budget, it was vital the present tax level be maintained in order to sustain local employment and economic activity.

“I would urge that our economic contributions, both at a local and national level, be taken into account before any final decisions are made in relation to alcohol excise duties,” he said.