It's a shame! Closure of over thirty Longford pubs ’a sign of the times’

Thirty-one pubs have closed in County Longford over the past two decades, a new report has revealed.

Gerry Lynn of the Longford Vintner’s Association is not surprised by the figures, published by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI), which according to him, is “a sign of the times”.

The report, titled “Support Growth: A Sustainable Future for Ireland’s Drinks and Hospitality Sector”, highlights a decline of 27.4% (31 pubs) in Longford since 2005.

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Mr Lynn commented, “There's many different things at play in regards to the way lifestyle has changed and our younger population and their drinking culture and everything like that.

“Those factors all have a major effect. The other thing is cost of running a business, or a small business in rural Ireland,” he said.

Mr Lynn runs the Sportsman Inn in Edgeworthstown.

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“At one stage we had 18 pubs here in Edgeworthstown. We're down to three at the moment, three that are open.”

The renowned Goldsmith Inn in Edgeworthstown is currently on the market.

Mr Lynn added, “I think it's a shame the way it is changing. At the end of the day, for small rural towns, it was a place to meet people and socialise and catch up with everything that's going on. So it was an important part of the community and still is, I would have anything from christening parties to wedding parties to funeral parties, it caters for all of that.”

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Nationally, an average of 114 pubs have closed annually over the past 18 years. The number of closures has risen in the last five years to 144 annual closures.   

DIGI Chair and Communications and Corporate Affairs Director at Irish Distillers, Kathryn D’Arcy, said: “The decline of over 2,000 pubs since 2005 reflects the real change and challenges this sector is dealing with. Pubs, restaurants, and hotels employ over 207,000 people which is 8.3% of all employees in the country. These people and the businesses they work for are part of the economic and social fabric of their communities. Running such businesses in a climate where the cost of doing business is squeezing more and more is difficult. DIGI’s research shows that when government responds, particularly on heavy cost items like taxation, the sector responds. Punitive taxes like excise duty which are in some instances 12 times higher here than in other countries, are one such cost item.  

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‘’Ireland’s excise on spirits and beer is the third highest in Europe, while our excise on wine is the second highest in Europe.  We have some of the highest excise duties in the world and the second highest in Europe overall.  

“These businesses are integral to Ireland’s tourism offering. We need to take that consideration into account too. We are calling on Government to deliver a reduction in Ireland’s extremely high excise duties which would make an immediate, positive difference to the hundreds of small businesses in our sector struggling to stay open. We have costed, considered plans on how to do this and welcome engaging with government and others on our proposals”.  

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