Irish Examiner view: Urban pubs will also need help

Finance minister Simon Harris said rural pubs are at the heart of local communities. 'Supporting our local pub helps keep an important part of rural life alive, while also supporting local jobs and the wider community.' File picture

Tánaiste and finance minister Simon Harris didn’t pull too many financial rabbits out of the hat on budget day, but one measure that did raise a few eyebrows, and the odd glass, was a €15m package that, as the minister put it, will help “keep our pub doors open”. Or to be more precise, rural pubs.

Whether you’re a fan of the pub or not, the stark numbers can’t be ignored. More than 2,200 pubs have closed since 2005. A survey released by the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) in May found trading sentiment among publicans has continued to deteriorate, with 41% reporting that trading conditions are now worse than 12 months ago. Almost 42% of respondents expressed a lack of confidence in the future of their business. Some 65% stated that rising costs are having an unsustainable impact on operations.

Mr Harris said rural pubs are at the heart of local communities. “Supporting our local pub helps keep an important part of rural life alive, while also supporting local jobs and the wider community. They are also key small and medium businesses hiring thousands of people around the country, including young people.”

VFI chief executive Pat Crotty said the €15m in support was “a great starting point”.

“Publicans are already dealing with significant increases in their costs, including the increase in the minimum wage to almost €15 an hour from January, and [the new] measure will give them some much-needed breathing space. For many smaller rural pubs, these pressures have become increasingly difficult to absorb.

“This is a significant step forward and will give many publicans greater confidence in the future of their businesses.”

While the Government and the industry are both clear on the why, what’s not so certain is the how. Mr Harris said details of how the money will be spent will be worked out with enterprise minister Peter Burke in the coming weeks.

Rural publicans said they look forward to working with Government to make sure the support is delivered in the most effective way possible.

But publicans in urban areas are not so happy, pointing out that there is nothing in the €15m pledge to help them.

The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has said the budget serves up nothing for pubs in Dublin or other urban areas, but a higher cost of doing business.

They have a point in that when you leave the bustling city centre streets, the one or two pubs serving a suburb have a lot of the same pressures as their rural counterparts and a lot of the same values for their communities.

Their case for a helping hand too will be hard to ignore.

Strong case for State funding

Against the background of issues targeted by the budget like housing, pensions, childcare costs, and crippling energy bills, it may seem surprising to find one of the wealthiest sports on the planet receiving a €22m allocation.

The money earmarked for September 2027’s hosting of golf’s illustrious Ryder Cup competition at Adare Manor jumps out a little from the mundane headaches of putting food on the table. The €22m comes on top of last year’s allocation of €9m, and the final bill will be even higher.

But of course when one stops to consider the allocation, there will have to be — among the many costs — preparations for the infrastructure to enable hundreds of thousands of golf fans to travel in and out of Adare comfortably, as hundreds of millions more watch unfolding events take place when the teams of America and Europe swing for glory.

As Fáilte Ireland spends millions every year on the promotion of Ireland around the world, the Ryder Cup will be an opportunity, closer to priceless than it is to €22m, for the country to put its best foot forward and show what we can do. After the debacle of some misbehaving American fans hurling insults and abuse at European players and their entourage last year at the event in Bethpage State Park, one thing the organisers will hope to rely upon from the Irish and European fans next year is that good spirits and decency to everyone playing in Adare and visiting the magnificent location will be the best riposte.

It all looked rather gentile when the US and European captains, Jim Furyk and Luke Donald, met on the course this week, but it will doubtless have a little more edge when they meet again in a year’s time. Even for those who consider the sport to be the proverbial good walk spoiled, or would prefer to pick up a hurley rather than a 7-iron, it still promises to be an occasion that will give the country a wonderful opportunity to shine on the world stage.

Movie great

Carry Grant’s ever-swashbuckling character in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest meets the beautiful Eve Kendall, played by Yves Marie Saint, and teasingly asks: “How does a girl like you get to be

a girl like you?”

Without demur, she replies with sublime nonchalance: “Lucky, I guess.”

Yves Marie Saint’s star turns in Hollywood’s heyday cannot be put down to luck. Along with other luminaries of her generation, the young woman was laying down cinematic templates in movies like that, and in On the Waterfront opposite Marlon Brando, for which she won the supporting actress Oscar that year, 1955. It is extraordinary to think that only now are we talking about her death at the age of 102.

At a time when performances teased so much with the
implied, and when meanings swam playfully beneath the language, Yves Marie Saint could do so much without recourse to an explicit word or gesture.

Hearing the horror stories of so many young women in the film industry in more recent times, one shudders to think of the gumption that must have been necessary for a safe passage through those early Hollywood years.

Lucky? Her legacy is the best of luck for moviegoers to have so many of her great performances there for posterity.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here