Laois pub closure rates among highest in country

The rate of pub closures in Laois is among the highest in the country, according to a new report just published. 

Laois had the sixth highest closure rate in the state with figures showing a 30.6% drop in the number of pubs in the county over the 2005 to 2024 period. Neighbouring county Offaly had the second highest rate of pub closures, down 34.1% in that period. 

The report commissioned by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) shows a continuing decline in the number of pubs in Ireland, with 2,119 - or one in four - closing their doors since 2005.

DIGI said the high cost of doing business was a major contributory factor to the alarming rate of closures recorded by the report. It said that without immediate action by the Government many villages and small towns will soon lose their last remaining pub which would deal a devastating blow to the economic and social fabric of that community.

DIGI has called for the Government to use the upcoming Budget to introduce a 10% cut in excise, which currently stands as the second highest in the European Union. 

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Independent TD Carol Nolan has expressed her concern at the figures. 

She said the report “paints a bleak outcome for a cultural and social institution that has been at the heart of rural and urban communities for as long as anyone can remember.

“This report is profoundly alarming, and it really highlights the need for direct government intervention, particularly around the need to use the upcoming Budget to introduce a 10% cut in excise, which at 23% currently stands as the second highest in the European Union.

“It is only when we have lost the pub and all that it represents as the focal point for music, craic, and tradition that we will know what we have lost.

“It is one of the key features of our culture and our country that tourists regularly cite as the main reason why they visit Ireland. We cannot allow our tourism potential to be further decimated by the rampant closure rates we are currently witnessing,” concluded Deputy Nolan.