{"id":643906,"date":"2026-10-03T20:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T20:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643906\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T20:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T20:12:09","slug":"publicans-warn-of-avalanche-of-closures-without-help-from-budget-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643906\/","title":{"rendered":"Publicans warn of \u2018avalanche\u2019 of closures without help from Budget &#8217;27"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">With Budget 2027 tomorrow, the Cork-based president of the Vintners\u2019 Federation of Ireland (VFI) has warned that there will be an \u201cavalanche\u201d of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echolive.ie\/corknews\/arid-41897230.html\">pub closures <\/a>in Cork without government support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Michael O\u2019Donovan, owner of the city\u2019s Castle Inn, was commenting on a report which shows that 400 pubs have closed in Cork since 2005.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The report, compiled on behalf of the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland by Dublin City University economist and associate professor emeritus Anthony Foley, shows that the number of pubs operating in Cork has declined from 1,221 in 2005 to 821 last year, or by 33%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">While only 1% of pubs in Dublin have closed since 2005, 28% have closed outside the capital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr O\u2019Donovan told  The Echo that now is the time for action and support for the pub industry to prevent further closures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThere is an undeniably compelling case for the Government to act in Budget 2027,\u201d Mr O\u2019Donovan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cFailure to do so will drive the final nail firmly into the coffin of many more pubs in your local area, and, for many, the last pub in your community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The VFI is calling on the Government to introduce an on-trade sustainability scheme in Budget 2027, a targeted tax credit on draught products sold in pubs, to help protect Ireland\u2019s pub network and the jobs and communities it supports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The tax credit itself would be valued at \u20ac20 per 50-litre keg of beer, with pubs eligible to claim up to \u20ac20,000 per year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr O\u2019Donovan added that he feels that Budget 2027 \u201chas become one of the most key budgets in recent history for the pub trade\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWithout some intervention, we will see an avalanche of closures in the next 12 to 24 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cSo we are pleading with the Government to please consider our proposal and to implement this in the upcoming budget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr O\u2019Donovan also stated that pubs continue to play a crucial role in the social fabric of communities, by offering an important space for people to interact and support for mental health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Budget 2027 tomorrow, the Cork-based president of the Vintners\u2019 Federation of Ireland (VFI) has warned that there&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,79,103902,61,60],"class_list":["post-643906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-news","tag-cork-pubs","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643906","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=643906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}