Benny McCabe: Hike in the price of a pint unfairly hits publicans and their customers 

Cork publican Benny McCabe writes that traditional Irish pubs are the guardians of a tradition and they and their customers keep getting walloped while big suppliers enjoy a taxpayer-funded subsidy

Publican Benny McCabe at The Pav on Carey's Lane in Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

The recent announcement that the price of certain pints are to increase in February vexes me, both as a publican and a punter.

Publicans, particularly in rural areas and small towns, have the choice of putting up prices and hoping they don’t lose customers, or maintain prices and bleed out slowly.

Adding to recent wage increases and pension auto-enrolment scheme — great initiatives but untimely for struggling businesses — pubs have reached their maximum absorption capacity.

The price increase will only widen the gulf between pubs that provide food and those that don’t.

I believe pubs that are non-food are the guardians of the tradition.

Why is there a Vat cut for food coming shortly that doesn’t benefit true public houses, which are a lifeline to many of us and the number one reason tourists visit?

Taxpayer-funded subsidy of suppliers

In reality, we are providing a taxpayer-funded subsidy to suppliers, which is not acceptable.

As a punter, I face the prospect of paying at least 4% more for my pint.

For some, this doesn’t seem too daunting, because a visit to the pub has become a luxury. We have moderated our behaviour towards pub drinking and this trend will continue. We will continue to drink less.

For others, however — especially elderly or retired people, for whom the pub is a lifeline — this price increase is a sore rise indeed.

Just as in covid times, this affects them disproportionately.

People on fixed incomes hit hard

There are pensioner prices available in most decent public houses, but still, the fixed-income punter bears the brunt.

For publicans, it’s a sobering January, dry even, for those who had been enthusiastic in December.

I’m reminded of my time growing up in a pub — the price of the pint leapt with every new government in that tumultuous period of the 1970s and 1980s.

However, during those days, there was a higher consumption rate and less competition for our leisure time.

Now there are endless subscriptions, mobile phones, and four Ryanair flights a year, mostly in favour of a few pints in a quite corner of a pub.

So do we get exercised by the increase of the price of a pint as a mechanism to avoid protesting all the other price increases?

Rent, power, food, transport have all gone up by more than the price of a pint.

We need a national conversation on alcohol

Why this fervorous commentary on the price of a pint when no one wants to talk about why addiction rates are rising as the pubs are closing?

What of the violence visited on women and children, when drink is taken at home? The emergence of Netflix on the couch, nightly, with the chardonnay?

Why is there no commentary on the availability of alcohol in garages and supermarkets that is rapidly expanding?

We need a reality check on the national conversation on alcohol and, indeed, on many issues rather than fixating on the pint.

Decent pubs are the whipping boy 

A decent public house will always remain a cherished space.

It’s time to stop making the pub a whipping boy when real issues require our urgent attention.

• Benny McCabe is a publican, who owns some of Cork’s best known pubs