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THERE HAS BEEN an average of 152 pub closures annually since 2019, according to new figures from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI).
The analysis shows a decline of 1,937 (22.5%) of pubs in Ireland since 2005.
The 10 counties which suffered the largest percentage reduction in the number of pubs since 2005 were: Limerick (32%), Roscommon (30.3%), Cork (29.9%), Laois (29.9%), Offaly (28.7%), Leitrim (28.6%), Tipperary (28.6%), Mayo (27.8%), Longford (26.5%) and Donegal (26.3%).
The drinks group said that the rate of pub closures has accelerated since Covid-19.
Looking at Limerick, there were 358 pubs in 2019. However, that dropped to 344 pubs in 2020, 339 pubs in 2021 and 325 pubs in 2022.
Roscommon had 198 pubs in 2019. In 2020, that figure dropped to 189 and was lower again in 2021 with 182 pubs. Last year, there were 177 pubs open in the county.
In Cork, there were 910 pubs in 2019. This dropped to 892 pubs in 2020, 873 pubs in 2021 and 856 pubs in 2022.
Overall, 349 pubs closed in 2020 and 2021.
Although all counties in Ireland experienced a decline in the number of public houses during the 2005 to 2022 period, the lowest decrease was in Dublin at 3.4%.
It should be noted that while many counties saw a continued decrease in pubs post-pandemic, Dublin has seen a slight increase.
In 2019, there were 785 pubs in Dublin. That figure dropped to 754 in 2022 and 752 in 2021. However, the number of pubs in the capital saw a slight increase again in 2022 with 759 pubs.
It was a similar story in Kildare which saw the number of pubs drop from 171 to 167 between 2019 and 2020, but rise again to 169 by 2022.
Writing in DIGI’s Irish Pub: Supporting Our Communities report, the group’s chairperson Kathryn D’Arcy said that “the re-opening and rebuilding of the sector has been rapid and successful for some”.
“To anyone walking around our nation’s capital, it must appear that hospitality is back in full lively swing,” D’Arcy said.
“But this past year has not been a ‘return to normal’ for many. What one doesn’t see on the streets of Dublin is the continual, challenging decline of the sector in other parts of Ireland,” she said.
D’Arcy said that some of the counties particularly impacted by pub closures “are home to some of our most rural communities, where the local pub is so often the heart of social interaction”.
Writing in the report, economist and professor Anthony Foley said that “excise duties on alcohol continue to the significant cost of doing business for publicans, the cost to consumers and can exacerbate the challenges faced by rural pubs in particular”.
Excise duty is charged on certain goods such as alcohol, tobacco and mineral oils.
The Drinks Industry Group of Ireland is proposing a 15% reduction in excise duties across two years.
“A reduction in the excise rate, as proposed by DIGI, would have the effect of improving conditions for pubs in Ireland, particularly in rural areas,” Foley said.
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The way cost living is going it will happen more. Whether it be pubs, local shops, supermarkets and local family businesses. Banks,Energy suppliers and big Supermarket chains are allowed do as they please. This Government doesn’t care about the little people only money and votes.
@Mick McGuinness: so use your vote against them.
@Mick McGuinness: The same applies in pretty much every country in Europe. Setting price caps or applying windfall taxes might win a few votes in the short term but is a risky game in the long term
@Mick Duvanny: FG supporters always try to hide their failings by proffering the notion that what is happening here is happening everywhere, so it must be kit is not. The problem is that the failed “everyman-for-himself” ideology that informs policy has inveigled its way to most places. The people have cottoned on and there will be wholesale changes after elections in the coming decade.
@Mick Duvanny: FG supporters always try to hide their failings by proffering the notion that what is happening here is happening everywhere, so it must be OK. It is not. The problem is that the failed “everyman-for-himself” ideology that informs policy has inveigled its way to most places. The people have cottoned on and there will be wholesale changes after elections in the coming decade
@Jim O’Sullivan: the British tried to cap the price of energy that ‘the people’ would have to pay but realised that the taxpayer would have to foot the bill.it’s not all black and white Jim.the italian government introduced windfall taxes to disastrous effect and it put their economy in turmoil and they back tracked less than 24 hours later….
FG are awesome can’t wait for 5 more years. Slimfast memes are ready to go for the shinners, this is going to be so much fun lol
@Jim O’Sullivan: well Jim, tell us your ideal ideology???
@Mick Duvanny: cause they’re playing a blinder at the moment.
@Mick Duvanny: the prices they were charging in Mullingar during the Fleadh, typically Irish
So what,I live in mayo and the local village has one pub now instead of three…
Enough drink for everyone in it and the owners make a few pounds more than before..
Time for the vintners confederation to realise people don’t want to spend every day in the pub depriving the wife and kids of clothes and food like it was 40 years ago
@hi from heaven: But when you walk into the one pub in the village now and the local loudmouth barstool hero is in full swing. You have to sit there and listen to him without having the option to go next door for a peaceful pint.
@hi from heaven: That’s great for you. I live in a rural part of Ireland where 2 pubs, one shop and our post office have closed in the past few years. The last remaining pub is hanging on, but when or if it goes, it will be a huge loss to the community though I know there will be plenty on here to tell me that a community shouldn’t need a pub to survive and maybe it doesn’t but it sure helps.
@Tom Leddy: more people need to be within walking distance of the pub, more estates and less car dependant one off sites?
Too expensive to go to the pub. Even after the government hammered us all with the minimum pricing tax/hike.
Local churches have closed too.. nothing to do with taxes and the government…
Life has moved on from drink and god
@hi from heaven: thankfully.
@hi from heaven: correct on both. Now get the church out of state funded schools too!!
@Thomas Meaney: Yes and also tax the Church.
Changing drink patterns since World cup ’94. The range of drinks people are now drinking. The price of it, never value for money. Tax is to high. And now with the cost of living. The Golden goose is dying. Homes or pubs? Government and brewers can sort it out.
Expense and greed . Will continue to close.
@Davy: Health a big factor.
@Thesaltyurchin: yes indeed. People are more health , family,work and home life oriented.
Smoking ban, drink driving limits, education health and priorities along with people retiring and keeping an active lifestyle have all contributed to life outside the pub.
Publicans have slit their own throats. The prices they are charging for a drink now are outrageous. The ordinary, average person just can’t afford it any more. In the 90s people went out to the pub once or twice almost every weekend. Now it’s a rare but expensive treat.
@Off The Ball: ya but there wasn’t 2cars in the driveway,5 mobile phones in the house,sky netflix and premium YouTube on the telly, and Spain was a place that you heard about not travelled to.
@hi from heaven: That’s a load of bibblix. I have a van from work, the wife has a small car. We don’t have sky or premium YouTube. Haven’t got 5 mobiles in the house. We do have a house in Spain that her father left us that he bought 40yrs ago. & it’s hell of a lot cheap to fly to Spain for a week & have every night out than it is here to go out for a weekend. Going out here is only for the rich.
@John Barry: Ball licks works.
The pubs in large population centres like Temple Bar will continue to do well despite high prices.Its the rural pubs and businesses that will continue to decline.
Someone told me yesterday they paid 7.50 for a pint of the black stuff somewhere in Dublin.
I fell off me stool and spilled me 6.75 pint of cider all over the gaff.
How can you afford a good night out when its gonna cost you a fortune for you and your partner?
You’re looking at the guts of what, 150/200 squid a night. That with a takeaway for afters.
Dont even think about hitting the clubs after you’ll be broke as a not so funny joke.
Greedy government taxing the ‘aul reliables has us with no money after everything out our wages
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: I was in Dublin City centre recently and was on my way to a gig and I paid 5 euro for a pint(just off south great George’s street)Dublin is not temple bar!
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: That’s like basing prices on what you were charged in Brown Thomas. There are great pubs and prices in Dublin away from Temple Bar etc.
@James Carroll: Keoghs, Grogans, Long Haul, Lord Edward, Kennedys… is the route.
@Thesaltyurchin: it’s 5 euro for a pint of Guinness in the snug on spephen st….just off south great George’s street.and it’s excellent.
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: You’ll pay that in hotels and pubs in temple bar etc. No locals will be drinking anywhere near there.
Changing culture, drugs are cheaper and quicker.
@: ‘quicker’? I’d worry about your motives for having a drink.
@: In the case of Cannabis waaaaay safer too.
How many Off Licences did towns have 30 years ago? Too many from young to old drinking at home on a daily basis and becoming alcohol dependent. Reduce off sales and encourage people back into pubs to drink socially.
@David Dolan:
Not all people like being forced into being sociable, lot of us prefer our own company.
@David Dolan: Do they give lessons on how to drink “socially” properly in pubs?
We are already the most expensive country in Europe for buying alcohol and it has failed if there were any actual real goals.
The answer may be in enforcing existing laws dealing with alcohol such as selling to minors, stumbling around the streets ossified, after being served in a “socially” controlled pub.
@: I’d rather you keep your own company too, in fairness.
@David Dolan: can’t get coked up in the local.
@colette byrne: Cavan cola.
Most of these closures were rural pubs that were financially unviable. The publican lived ‘upstairs’ and opened maybe 4 nights a week for 10 regulars (if he was lucky). But 10 people won’t pay bills, so at retirement nobody else will step up to take over. They would be mad to. These closures are nothing to do with the policy of any government, but just reflect societal change.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: sorry Sean,delete that post,it doesn’t suit the narrative in here because it doesn’t include a whinge at ffg/greens.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: That societal change was a direct consequence of Govt policy, the failure to accept that rural life was different to urban life and these closures were well predicted by anyone that knew anything about rural life.No facilities, no transport no options and now not even a social outlet..no wonder suicide rates are so high in rural Ireland.
@uUleRhCu: I’m just reacting to your post, whinging about not whinging about the government.
Not surprised.
Too expensive.
Even no alcohol drinks and soft drinks are extortionate.
@Hector turtlehead: Zero Alcohol products are Vile!!!
That’s because people are slowly waking up to the fact that there is a lot more to life and to living, than the pub .
Can’t blame migrants for this one … or covid.
Ireland’s obsession with alcohol has held it back for decades , probably more .
They’re just too expensive now
Let the pub trade rot, constant drink hikes and the greedy vintners lobbying for a MUP for years which they got in the end, its too expensive to drink out nowadays almost 7 euro in my local city centre, was up in Dublin last year and charged 18.60 for 2 heineken…its across the board, whatever it is about this country its like a free for all to rob its people whether it be drink or food or services….so ya let the pubs go under good for them
Doubt the bar in Dail Eireann will be closing!
@Lydia Mcloughlin: not a chance
Memories of growing up in pubs in the nineties… it was completely normal to stop about 3 times on the way to Kerry from Dublin to have my Step Dad having 5 pints en route.
Used to have to ring my Mum on a landline to our ‘local’ to see when she’d be home.
And they wonder why I’ve been in 15 treatment centres for alcoholism?!
@Donna Fallon: do you supposed alcoholism is someone else’s fault?
@John John Jon: You can’t make a fortune from whatever job you claim to do without ‘others’. You’re as connected to this mess as anyone (whether you like it or not) much as you like to see yourself as some daiety.
@Donna Fallon: Blame someone else for your problems.
This in itself is a testament to how removed our Govt are from life on the ground for the normal Joe and Mary.People travelled the world over to experience an Irish pub witness its culture and just be there but unfortunately to those who did their drinking in the Dail bar they completely failed to see this picture..and with the pub goes the culture, the music, the craic and what used to be a huge part of being Irish.Such a shame.
Pubs are an extremely important part of Irish culture, especially in rural Ireland. They are a focal point of the community, where people meet, share news, play music, and recite stories/poetry. They are not only places to have a drink. This cultural side of the ‘pub culture’ is already dying out. It seems that the government has no issue with completely killing it off as it has it has done with so much of what previously made Ireland unique. They seem to want us to all become ‘on the go’ neoliberal zombies with no time for anything other than consumption and work.
With the price of a pint and the cost of living I’m NOT surprised.
Why are people still so hung up on drinking and pubs? Life has moved on. People in their 50s and 60s are now doing all sorts of active pursuits. 50 years ago someone in their mid 60s was heading for the funeral home. Life expectancy was 70, now its 83. so 50 really is the new 40 and people are grabbing those opportunities. People meet now in all sorts of places and not the pub. Cafe culture is growing and is a healthy alternative. People have a lot of options. My experience of a recent visit to a local urban pub was a sad affair, 10-15 men over the age of 60, no women and nobody younger than me at 49. This was 6 clock on a Friday evening. People were at home with their families and doing other things! People who chose to drink at home did so because a bottle of wine has 4 glasses and cost about €8 versus a pint at €5 in the pub. The pub doesn’t have the lure of social banter it had previously either ( e.g. the 15 old men). The pub is dead and gone in Ireland, it will end up a novel event to go to one rather than a habit that , lets be frank, screwed up at least one member in every family in Ireland.
@Brian Mck: Anecdotal.com
That would be binge drinking Denis….
This was one of the reasons for the plandemic. Destroy small business. It worked well in Ireland. The politicians bosses want to centralize everything through them.
@: Jazes… seek professional help.
I think a lot of this has got to do with how the pub culture has changed over time. Once upon a time a publican opened their doors and got customers in no matter what, hence why we have a surplus of pubs in the country. Nowadays because going to the pub is a pricey outing people want bang for their buck so they’ll go to the bars that have bands or entertainment, or the pubs with the huge TV screens everywhere to watch a match before going to the little old Irish bar that doesn’t have any of this but still charges the same for a pint as everywhere else. The pub game has become a lot more competitive than it was 30 years ago when a small town could have 10 pubs and each one of them where busy.
We are born into a drinking culture. “Wet the baby’s head.”
Get hammered at the christening. Holy communion, big drinking session, all the adults get drunk. Celebrate achievements in life, raise a glass. Family gatherings, festivities, holidays. All underscored by excessive consumption of alcohol. Marriage, and on to our death. The famous Irish wake.
Wives waiting outside places of husband’s employment on pay day, to take the pay packet before it is drank away. The measure of a man’s masculinity by the amount of pints he could drink in a session. The town drunks. Accepted, like care in the community.
The great Irish reputation for drinking and drunkenness.
I am glad the change is taking place.
Won’t someone please think of the tourists?!?!
Honestly, the Irish obsession with booze – despite its biggest brands now being owned by foreign multinationals – is pretty embarrassing. And of course, alcohol kills well over a thousand people a year…
And is more expensive by the day.
But at least the British – ie Diagio – is getting rich off of Irish suffering.
Like I said, embarrassing.
A few cans from the supermarket a nit of food few friends around and a bit of music..as good as it gets and a far bit cheaper
@Ian Cryan: * bit of food*
Ireland is becoming like everywhere else, more boring.
Reopen the pubs.
Something is only too expensive when you ‘need’ it
The Strong will get Stronger
They could lower their extortionate prices.
Ho much does a pub license cost?
Uuuhhhh, big problem. Ireland pubs dissapearing. No drink no life hahshah
Oh Maaaannn
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