March on Dáil: Publicans claim 5,000 jobs to be lost within year

PUBLICANS descended on Leinster House to warn the Government their industry was “going down the tubes” unless efforts were made to save it.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) claim 30,000 jobs have been lost in the trade over the last five years and that, based on this trend, 5,000 jobs will go within the next year.

The federation — representing 4,500 publicans outside Dublin — is urging the Government not to increase excise duty on alcohol and to lower commercial rates they pay to local authorities.

Minister of State Roisín Shortall, who is responsible for the country’s drugs strategy, has hinted that excise duty may go up as part of the Government’s impending National Substance Misuse Strategy.

“30,000 jobs have been lost over the last four to five years in this business,” said VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben.

“It’s accepted by the Government that represents a loss to exchequer of €630m. We reckon from where the industry is today there will be another 5,000 jobs lost next 12 months. Those 5,000 will be in two, threes and fours, all around the country.

“They don’t get the same headlines as 1,000 jobs in Aviva, 500 jobs in Talk Talk. We are trying to highlight the fact that so many of these jobs are being lost. Every job being lost affects half a dozen people, so it’s a massive problem.”

Mr Cribben said putting excise duty up wouldn’t address the problem of cheap alcohol sold in supermarkets. He cited what happened in England two years ago, when supermarkets “thumbed their noses” at an excise increase by actually reducing alcohol prices.

But he supports government proposals to bring in minimum pricing for alcohol.

Mr Cribben pointed out that a Fáilte Ireland survey found that 83% of tourists used pubs for food and that 7% came to Ireland to experience the pubs here.

Con Dennehy, of Dennehy’s Bar in Cornmarket, Cork city, was one of the 200-odd protestors at the gate of Leinster House.

“This is a cry for help. Our industry is going down the tubes. There are pubs closing at the rate of one a day,” said Mr Dennehy, who took over the pub from his mother, who opened it in 1957.

He said he understood the Government was in “dire straights” but thinks “if excise duty is increased it is going to drive people further out of pubs, which will diminish the return they get from the pub anyway.”

He also said city rates were too high and needed to come down.

Picture: According to the Vintners Federation, 30,000 jobs have been lost in the pub trade in the last five years alone. Picture: Mark Stedman