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“IRISH PUB CULTURE is part of the fabric of Irish life. A pint, a coffee, a glass of wine. It’s kind of who we are.”
As the owner of Lowry’s Bar in Galway, publican Damien Joyce serves hundreds of locals and tourists every day. Lowry’s has been in Joyce’s family since 1949, and he’s the third generation to run it. The role also means he sees first hand the negative effect that rising alcohol taxes and the mounting concerns over Brexit can have on business.
“It’s certainly the quietest summer I’ve seen in terms of British tourists,” Joyce notes. “Over a third of a tourist’s budget goes on food and drink alone, so it’s absolutely fundamental to Irish tourism to stay competitive.”
The drinks and hospitality industry is not only part of Ireland’s culture, but of our livelihood and economy too. Around 92,000 people are directly employed within the Irish drinks industry, and that figure rises to 210,000 when you take in the wider hospitality sector.
As part of its Support Your Local campaign, DIGI, the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland, is seeking a reduction in alcohol excise tax in Budget 2018. Members of the public can show their support by contacting their local TDs using a pre-filled online form. Uncertain about Ireland’s alcohol tax rates? Here are a few key figures:
Joyce isn’t alone in seeing a drop in tourist footfall in recent months. In a new survey carried out by DIGI, nearly half (49 per cent) of hospitality business owners noted a decline in visitors from abroad.
The high excise tax on alcohol was a key concern for those surveyed. A massive 98 per cent agreed that the tax on alcohol in this country was too high, and two thirds (66.3 per cent) said it had negatively affected their business during the past year.
High alcohol prices, combined with the rising cost of a visit to Ireland for UK residents post-Brexit, next year could be a grim one for Irish pubs, restaurants and off-licences.
“We’re only a couple of miles from the border and if the currency changes it can affect your business really quickly,” says Sean Redmond of Andy’s Bar in Monaghan Town. “The uncertainty of Brexit is already creating challenges for Ireland’s drink and hospitality industry.”
Further south of the border, the sentiment remains the same. “Brexit is the unknown,” admits Dave Morrissey, owner of The Whitworth in Dublin.
“But what is certain is a significant reduction in visitors from the UK to Dublin, and at this early stage, there’s major fear on our part as to exactly what diverse effect this is going to have.”
In DIGI’s survey, business owners placed a reduction in excise tax number one in the list of potential safeguards the Government should put in place against Brexit.
A massive 80% of tourists to Ireland included “visiting an Irish pub” on the list of elements they wished to experience on their trip, proving just how valuable a resource our pubs are within the tourism market.
For Joyce, the current situation is not a sustainable one. “Britain is by a distance our biggest market,” he says. “It’s coming to a point where enough is enough [with excise tax]. We can only go so far.”
To hear more from Ireland’s hospitality business owners, check out this video:
Want to help save hospitality jobs in your area? Adding your voice to the campaign to lower Ireland’s alcohol excise tax in Budget 2018 is simple. Head over to supportyourlocal.ie, where you can use the pre-filled contact form to raise your concerns with local TDs.
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Cultures change ,the Public House is no longer the hub of a community’s social life ,Tourists won’t come if they don’t get value for their money and most of them I have met in this disastrous Summer have complained about high cost of accommodation and drink.
@Brian O Reilly: its €4 for a pint of guinness in my local and anything from 5-50 to €7-20 as one heads towards Dublin.Tourists need to explore the real Ireland.
@Brian O Reilly: €5 pints now seen as standard, €3 for a small bottle of coke and publicans wonder why custom is down?
@Brian O Reilly: Perhaps people are drinking less as advised by health sources?
@michael donnelly So what price would you deem as fair for a pint or a bottle of coke? – taking into account the price of the keg/bottle, electricity, rates, vat, rent, staffing, heat, depreciation, making a living, waste charges, property tax and corporation tax?
@Gillian Weir Scully: No they are just drinking at home.
So you should be able to sit in a nice warm pub, watching Sky Sports, a drink served to you by a person, ice and a slice, glasses washed, maybe a band or a bit of background music, vat paid on it, equipment maintained nicely, IMRO and rates paid up, for the same price as you buy it in a supermarket.
That makes sense… The irish blinkers. Can’t beat them.
@Old Gabby Johnson: for me to have a pint of coke is any where from €5.50 to €6. That’s for 2 200ml small bottle and a bit of ice. Now in any shop I can buy a 500ml bottle ice cold for €1.65 €1.85.
Now the pint in the pub is put into the glass so fast that I find that it loses a lot of the fizz or its been sitting on the shelf so long it’s lost the fizz. Also the coke isn’t cold and your dependant on the ice to cool it.
I’ve been in pubs where they sell 500ml and 330ml cans for reasonable costs €1-2 these are few and far between.
How is charging should a mark up on a fizzy soft drink right.
@Old Gabby Johnson: I suspect they can buy coke at 60c a bottle. Even with overheads it’s ridiculous to charge any more than €2 for a coke.
@Neville Patterson: where is the glass of coke, or a pint of miwadi, in the vintners “guess how much tax is on this”? Quiz. I was actually surprised at how little tax is on a pint compared with the price markup between countries.
@TheBluffmaster2:
Dublin is biting off the hand that feeds it..the cost of running a business in dublin is outragous..
Greed comes to mind …
@Michael Donnelly:
i agree…
greed…greed and more greed
@Michael Donnelly: 5.50 for a rock shandy in local for when I’m driving – disgraceful gouging – theres no high taxes and excise duties associated with alcohol -its just shameless rip off
The cost of drinking in pubs in Ireland is far too expensive, at all most €5 for a pint is not affordable to many, and the cost in supermarkets / off licences is a lot cheaper, €20 euro spent in supermarkets would cost €80 in pub. it need to change or more pubs will close.
@conriel: that’s what they are claiming – the rip off element is the difference between €3.50 for a pint in mayo Vs €5 in Dublin. The problem is that an item that costs the publican 50c gets a €3 markup in taxes before they can add their costs to it. It’s the reason you can go out and spend €10 for the night in Barcelona, and the bar stays profitable, whereas here it gets one drink, a packet of crisps and a bitter taste in your mouth.
@conriel: stayed in a hotel in Carlow recently double vodka and small coke ,1 pint of larger. 24 Euro. Pint of Guinness in my local 5.25. No wonder the pubs are closing.
@Gulliver Foyle: and how do they explain the charging of 5.50 for a rock shandy – no alcohol taxes or 3 euro mark up for soft drinks – so do they pocket the massive mark up when I don’t buy alcohol is that what they claim ??
This is incredible! The sheer nerve of the vintners / publicans. They will do absolutely ANYTHING – except charge a fair price for their product.
They will lobby Government to sabotage their competition (sham minimum pricing law designed to hurt supermarkets), launch advertising campaigns, even suggest parents take their teenage children to the pub with them. Anything except lower their astronomical prices.
An RTE consumer affairs programme a few years back found that the average (throughout the entire country) profit on a pint of lager is approximately 200% !! The margin on wine and spirits is far higher than that. But seemingly that’s not enough for them!
The pubs are charging the same (or higher) prices now as they were in the boom years when their profits enabled them to buy Premiership football clubs. The taxes have barely gone up in the intervening years yet their prices have stayed the same or gone up.
I used to go to a pub table quiz on a Thursday, meet mates after work in town on the Friday, go out with the missus on the Saturday and sometimes even go to the pub to watch the football on the Sunday. Now? I go to the pub about once a month and it’s to a Weatherspoons. Cos I realized that I was being absolutely ripped off in pubs. Now I sit in with a few Aldi/Lidl beers or glass of wine and save my money for weekends away (abroad) with the missus or my mates.
If the pubs want me back they will need to start selling sub-€3 pints – which they can easily afford.
@John Smith: your Aldi cans will cost you €2 next year when our Government bring in the minimum alcohol pricing act. Great little country
@Euro is Dead: The ones I buy are €2 anyway but I get your point.
Minimum pricing is a shameless, cynical dig out for the vintners (many of whose members are politicians). As a country we drink 20% less than a generation ago, we have more young people teetotal than ever before, higher numbers of gym and sports club members than ever before yet NOW they choose to introduce minimum pricing?!! It’s the most cynical dig out for the pubs I’ve ever seen.
I reckon I spend around €300 a year in pubs (compared to €300 a weekend a few years ago!). If minimum pricing comes in I will reduce that to zero just to spite the pubs / Government. All my mates are saying the same thing. Even if they bring in laws making the supermarkets / off-licences more expensive than the pubs I will still refuse to go to the pub as I refuse to be ripped off and bullied into giving greedy publicans my hard-earned money.
They can easily afford to charge under €3 for a pint but simply refuse to do so
@Euro is Dead: This is a kangaroo pee, not a beer. Beer cost at least €2 here. When you lucky you can get 2 for €3-3.5
@Euro is Dead: I’m going straight over the border.
@John Smith:
Its greed ..greed and more greed
Reduce over inflated prices.. provide transport for customers… that would be a start
@OCallaghan TP: how is that possibly sustainable
People are still coming the problem is Hotels , pubs. An eating houses are all way over priced by far an they even get a cheap VAT rate. Drop your prices.
Where I live there were once around a dozen pubs but slowly they are closing up as age takes its toll on publicans and nobody wants to run them any more. Now we have five along with a hotel all just about surviving but not making any effort to make their business viable or meeting customer needs with food and entertainment. Pubs are part of communities and need to play their part in working with other people if they want their towns and villages to survive.
We are being screwed on everything , not just on drink. However bear in mind that those we almost elected Are currently conspiring to ensure that the cheapest can of beer sold in a supermarket will be €2. So a retailer who buys a can of beer for 60cents can’t legally sell it for under €2. You couldn’t make it up!!!
@Euro is Dead: It’s worse than that, completely aside from beer, the issue is going to be spirits.
The minimum price for a 700ml bottle of let’s say whiskey (or any 40ish% spirit) will be nearly €30, I believe €28 is the figure I’ve seen. Now, at first glance you might think that’s not too bad, the average price for a bottle of Jameson is €30 give or take a few quid so it’s not going to increase by much if at all.
If you think that you are very naive as is the government. What will happen is the cheap brands of spirits will be brought up to the same price as premium spirits. The premium spirits will have to differentiate themselves from the cheap stuff so their price will increase accordingly and I won’t be surprised if they increase by the same gap that’s currently there.
That means your €30 bottle of Jameson will be €40 after MUP.
Everything will increase accordingly.
All to cater for the nanny staters because a minority of the population abuse alcohol. They are only hurting responsible drinkers and tourists as well as the poorest in society (who might still be responsible drinkers).
@Reuben Gray: I picked up a big bottle of paddy whiskey for €14,30 and a bottle of Jameson for €15,89 here in Spain.The more I read about Ireland and it’s corrupted to the core government the less I miss it. It’s a pity the people of Ireland just sit like sheep and take it.
@Shane O Mahony: we don’t actually take it, we’ve stopped going to pubs! Culturally, the 18 to 25 demographic wouldn’t even consider going to a pub; preferring pre-drinking, discount drinks and cheap shots in clubs. The publicans don’t even know they’ve lost the war, while trying to win a phyric victory by blaming the government and taxes for their greedy miking the last of the cultural spin.
Taxes are far too high on drink. Prefer to go to a Pub any days that sit in someones gaff drinking cans .. People forget to you get a service in a Pub, your drink is handed to you, and you don’t have to clean up after yourself, plus prob have music and of course some nice company. Outside the Cities Pubs are dying due to the Drink Driving laws, people no longer will even go out on a Sunday in case they are over the limit the next morning. People should be allowed a pint or 2 and it should be like the US where people would have to fail some other test to prove incapacity to drive before a breathalyzer test.
Remember the vat rates are charged as a percentage of the price paid, they do not dive up the cost. For example, if it’s €5, vat of 23% then it’s €1.15 vat. If the cost is €2 then vat is only €0.46. it’s relative. Excise is higher, but that’s the same for everyone including supermarkets. I don’t think people would have an issue paying €3.50-4 or so for a beer. €5 is expensive and anything above is robbery.
@Keith Richardson: my rates are probably off, but this
holds irrespective of the vat rate.
Local bars are closing in rural ireland as there is very poor if any local trasport to get you to or home from the pub. We are plastered with ads about drink driving and then put nothing in place like busses etc. Taxis in rural ireland are expensive so we dont go unless ots a special occasion and sometimes we have a family dinner instead.to go out on a night is no less then 100 euro spend. Taxis , couple of drinks and the obligatory bag of chips..
Offer us a better service. Raise the bar against your competitors. Bring your prices down. The onus shouldn’t be on the customer to go to the bloody pubs as is suggested in the article, it should be on the pubs to bring us there.
Don’t worry, minimum pricing of alcohol will have us there in our droves. Not.
Try lowering the prices ..
Cheap drink. More drank. Poorer health. Pressure on health service. More tax. Oh!
@Etherman: countries with lower alcohol and pub taxes have less binge drinking, and less alcohol related health problems. Go figure!
@Etherman: Sugar is killing more than alkohol.
@Etherman:
my aunt lived to a hundred and 4..
she drank gin when she had bad tummy..whiskey for chest..vodka for pain..brandy for flu..
when asked when did she drink water .she said she was never that sick …
The Govt could reduce taxes on drink, but only if the pubs passed on the decrease to customers. This could be enforced quite simply, by introducing pricce controls, which were abolished in the 80s. If they knocked a euro tax off the pint, they could make maximum price E4.50 in Dublin, E4 in other cities and E3.50 everywhere else. Pubs who don’t like it (i.e Temple Bar) could forego the tax reduction and continue to charge Royal Ascot prices.
Publicans can only blame themselves. Why can i buy pint guinness cheaper in tramore than in portlaoise. waterford three pints guiness for eleven euro
Very hard to get Value!!! Prices are sky rocketing. The days of a great pub dinner for a Tenner are gone it seems now everything is 12.95 or 14.95. That’s really expensive especially if your having a pint or two.
Slowly but surely people have been moving away from the “Irish Pub Culture,” as we have a vast array of entertainment at our finger tips that was never there before. We no longer need to go to the local to seek out our entertainment, it is all at the press of a button or click of a mouse, and just as importantly, much, much, MUCH, cheaper than the local. If local pubs want to survive they must up their game and reduce their prices.
I hate to go to a pub and see a TV blaring away in the corner. I don’t see the need for it and it damages the Unique Selling Point of a pub which is character, atmosphere, conversation, craic, music. The TV is turned on for the golf and then the football and then the snooker and the tennis and before you know it it is the centre of attention and folks are all staring at it slack jawed.
@Sean:
my local is half hour drive from dublin.
no tv radio or till..outdoor loo..
closes on sunday for the holy hour..
2 to 4 pm.
great place ….
It’s almost as if tourists are paying too much already for accommodation, forced into dearer hotels when they try to book. It couldn’t possibly be anything to do with a lack of public housing, could it?
The Government can do a lot more by reducing crazy taxes on alcohol, during the recession they lofted two euro on a bottle of wine, Ireland probably has the highest alcohol taxes in the EU
any pub on the suburbs of dublin is only a building site they have only them selves to blame . overcharging looking for excess profits . Greed . bye now
It’s a Sham for sure!!! I worked in professional kitchens. Bars are the same. Half the staff are paid under the table. Girl complains one night ‘I’m reporting you to the Revenge’ the manager said ‘you won’t have far to go their drinking and driving at table number five’
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