Up to 50 Galway pubs won’t reopen post-Covid
A total of 16 pubs across Galway did not have their licenses renewed following the Covid lockdown – but the real rate of attrition is much higher, with the head of the county’s publicans putting the number of closures as high as 50.
The official rate is based on figures from the Revenue Commissioners – but the chairman of the County Galway branch of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) said that didn’t take account of the pubs which had closed despite applying to keep their licence valid.
Councillor Joe Sheridan said he had renewed his own licence at Walsh’s Bar in Dunmore despite being shut to the public since March 2020.
Many publicans would have chosen to keep their licences live as to let them lapse for more than two years can cost anything up to €35,000 to renew as it involves a hearing in the Circuit Court.
“The true figure of pub closures is a multiplier of that. If I was a gambler, I’d say at least three times that figure of 16 – I’d say 50 pubs minimum are gone. Sure, just around me, there are a dozen pubs which have closed and won’t reopen and that’s in just a ten-mile radius and they have all renewed their licenses,” the Fianna Fáíl representative for the Tuam area told the Connacht Tribune.
Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie