Hospitality closures: Ireland has lost two pubs every week since 2006
Ireland has lost an average of two pubs every week since 2006, according to a new report. The report from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) shows that 2,054 Irish pubs have closed their doors for good in the past two decades. It works out at 114 pubs a year or just over two per week. It warns that the number of closures has increased in recent years – with the country losing 144 pubs a year over the last five years. The report includes a county-by-county breakdown of the closures with Limerick losing 35.6% of it pubs over the studied timeframe – more than any other county in Ireland. Dublin has seen the lowest number of closures, losing just 2.8% of its pubs. The report includes analysis from DCU economist Anthony Foley and on Breakfast Briefing this morning, he said the closures represent a “serious loss in terms of not only economic infrastructure for small villages and local rural areas but also in terms of the social impact that they the pubs would have as gathering places and meeting places”. He said the number of closures hit peaks during the economic crash in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and then again during COVID in 2020. He said that decline has continued in the years since the pandemic. Mr Foley said there are a range of reasons why the west has been harder hit than the east. “In the east, we’ve seen massive growth in population, a younger population, a more concentrated population and maybe, starting off, a smaller penetration of pubs per bundle of population than would have been the case in the rest of the country,” he said. Credit to : Newstalk