{"id":390022,"date":"2026-04-09T15:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390022\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:13:09","slug":"as-more-restaurants-close-is-irelands-dining-scene-cooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390022\/","title":{"rendered":"As more restaurants close is Ireland’s dining scene COOKED?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s hospitality industry is facing a deepening crisis, with hundreds of restaurants and caf\u00e9s closing permanently every year, while new openings remain concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural communities without replacement businesses.<\/p>\n

The scale of the problem was brought into sharp focus in the opening months of 2026. Jamie Oliver\u2019s Italian in Dundrum Town Centre closed in March<\/a> after fourteen years.<\/p>\n

Bon App\u00e9tit in Malahide, a Michelin-starred restaurant, served its final meal on 4 January 2026 after 21 years. Just two weeks ago,\u00a0Krew South on Charlemont Square in Dublin 2 shut its doors. <\/p>\n

\"Pic:Pic: Taras Tea Room\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Harrigan\u2019s Bar and Grill in Newbridge, a Main Street fixture since 1885, closed its kitchen on 18 January 2026. In Cork, Tara\u2019s Tea Room closed after twelve years.<\/p>\n

According to the Restaurants<\/a> Association of Ireland, 856 restaurants and caf\u00e9s permanently closed across Ireland in 2024 alone, following 612 closures in the twelve months after the government hiked VAT from 9 percent to 13.5 percent in September 2023. A further 150 businesses closed in the first three months of 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX\/Shutterstock (4686131a)
Jamie Oliver<\/p>\n

While IBISWorld data shows the total number of food businesses in Ireland grew by 3.25 percent to 9,849 in 2025, the RAI argues that this figure masks the real damage.<\/p>\n

New openings are heavily concentrated in Dublin and urban centres, while closures are disproportionately hitting rural towns and villages where there is no pipeline of new operators to fill the void. <\/p>\n

When a long-established community restaurant <\/a>closes outside the capital, the RAI says, it is rarely replaced.<\/p>\n

Independent analysis by economist Jim Power found each closure costs an average of 22 jobs and leaves a \u20ac1.36 million hole in the local economy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pic: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The government announced in Budget 2026 that VAT would return to 9 percent, but the cut does not take effect\u00a0until 1 July 2026. Critics have also noted it applies equally to multinational chains, with McDonald\u2019s, which recorded Irish profits of \u20ac42 million in a single year according to D\u00e1il debate figures, receiving the same relief as struggling independents.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pic: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rural pubs face a separate crisis entirely. A 2025 Drinks Industry Group of Ireland report found that one in four Irish pubs has closed since 2005, with the Vintners\u2019 Federation of Ireland confirming the current rate is one closure every 2.8 days. Pubs are entirely excluded from the July VAT cut.<\/p>\n

For the hundreds of businesses already gone, the relief arrives too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s hospitality industry is facing a deepening crisis, with hundreds of restaurants and caf\u00e9s closing permanently every year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-390022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}