Hike in price of the pint will force job losses in city pubs

By Declan Tierney

Pubs located on the fringes of the city may be forced to close down as customers are faced with another increase in the price of drinks.This is the stark warning from a local vintners’ chief who said that many pubs in the city were currently “hanging on by a thread” and couldn’t face the prospect of having to impose a price increase on their already dwindling customer base.

It was announced that Diageo, which owns all of the Guinness products, have increased their prices to the publicans and these will be ultimately passed on to customers.

At the moment there are currently almost 500 people employed in the pub industry in Galway city and it is expected that this latest price increase will result in significant job losses.

Terry Tyson, Chairman of the Galway City Vintners, said that several pubs would have no choice but to close their doors and particularly those on the outskirts of the city.

The increase will push the price of the pint of Guinness over the €4 mark – although this was already the case in a number of the popular city centre pubs – but is set to have a major impact on pubs which rely mainly on a local trade, in Salthill and Bohermore.

Mr Tyson, a Salthill based publican, said that the pubs in his locality were doing very little trade on week nights and the last thing they wanted was an increase in the price of the pint. He said that even in Bohermore, it would be difficult to survive the proposed increase.

“If publicans were able to absorb the increase, then it would minimise the impact but most are hanging on by a thread and will have no choice but to pass on the increase to their customers.

“The vast majority of pubs in Galway city are struggling to keep their doors open as overheads continue to increase.

“There are pubs in the Latin Quarter which will be in a position to pass on the price increase to their customers but for the remainder, they will be doing so with a lot of trepidation”, Mr Tyson added.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland has come out strongly against the hike and says that nationally thousands of jobs in the industry will be put at risk.

“People will opt for cheap drink in off licences and increase the problem of home drinking. And I dread to think what the budget has in store,” Mr Tyson said.