Rural pubs are closing down at the rate of one a day because of the smoking ban, drink-driving laws and high running costs, the president of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, Paul Stephenson, claimed yesterday in Monaghan.
He told the annual conference of the 5,500-strong organisation, which represents publicans outside Dublin, that the future of rural pubs was under severe threat because of this combination of factors in recent years.
He said membership of the organisation had dropped from 6,200 in the last two years and 800 pubs had closed down since the smoking ban. He estimated that in the past year alone 200 rural pubs had shut their doors.
He said the problem of closures was particularly bad in Co Clare and at the beginning of yesterday's session a Clare delegate, Michael Moloney from Ruane, had sought suspension of standing orders to debate what he called the crisis in the industry.
Dealing with the pressures on publicans outside the cities and towns, Mr Stephenson said the drink-driving laws, which publicans supported, had a major impact on rural trade. But unfortunately the new laws had not worked and young people were still dying on our roads.
"However, I believe the gardaí are targeting the wrong people. No one should be given the keys to drive a car, which is a lethal weapon, without having taken a driving lesson," he said.
"We need to tighten up in this area and I believe that no one should be given a driving licence without first having had 10 driving lessons from a qualified person," he said.
He said the random breath tests being carried out on drivers had forced people into isolation in the country and it was unfair that there was not a night-time transport system in place for rural people who were as entitled to it as people living in Dublin.
"We are not talking about a booze bus. We are talking about the survival of rural communities and the right rural people have to socialise, not just in the pub but in the village hall, the cinema or visiting friends at night," he said.
What was needed, he said, was innovative, practical transport schemes for rural people and he was urging the incoming government to seriously consider special VAT and VRT provisions for people-carriers purchased for rural community transport purposes.
"It is quite possible to encourage investment in community-based hackneys, taxis, minibuses and people-carriers purchased for rural community transport purposes," he said.
He told the 200 delegates that, apart from the rising costs of running small pubs, publicans across the State wanted a review of the Groceries' Order which was allowing multiples to sell alcohol at below-cost prices as a loss leader to get a bigger share of the grocery sector. "A lot of people blame publicans when they see young people drunk on the street but the reality is that drink is being sold by untrained people in supermarkets across the country where you trip over alcohol in every corner of the shops."
Mr Stephenson said some VFI members were doing well, especially those based in some of the cities and larger towns, but the reality was that many in rural areas were looking at the option of selling their licences to retailers at prices of up to €170,000 and closing their businesses.