Paul Hopkins: What ails publican and punter alike?

Many of the 3,500 publicans represented by the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) can arguably identify with the horse who walks into a pub and the barman says: "Why the long face?"

Understandably so, as their federation tells an Oireachtas Joint Committee that rising costs are contributing to job losses and threatening the viability of many rural pubs.

The VFI's new survey shows that 22 per cent of pubs reported a decrease in staffing in the past 12 months, citing ongoing cost pressures as the primary reason.

Chief Executive Pat Crotty says the figures reflect the growing strain on businesses attempting to absorb sustained increases in costs. For many smaller and rural pubs, he says the cost has become completely unsustainable and poses an existential threat to future viability.

According to the VFI survey, 64 per cent of publicans say rising business costs are having an unsustainable impact on them, while four in 10 report trading conditions are worse than 12 months ago.

Four in 10 lack confidence in the future sustainability of their business.

The committee also heard that more than 2,200 pubs have closed across Ireland since 2005, representing a decline of a quarter of licensed pubs. The average rate of closure has jumped in recent years to 128 pubs a year. Since 2005 there have been 14 closures in Meath.

As part of its Budget 2027 submission, the VFI is calling on the Government to introduce a new On-Trade Sustainability Scheme aimed at protecting smaller and rural pubs. The proposed measure would operate through a targeted tax credit linked to verified purchases of draught products, with support capped at €20,000 for each premises.

We Irish have always had a special relationship with the pub and drink, though that is, inevitably, changing. The pub contributes to social well-being and connectedness, and in many rural communities is one of the last, if not the last, remaining indoor public gathering place.

The place of the pub in society the last decades has already changed dramatically, thanks to drink-driving laws, the availability of alcohol in supermarkets, the smoking ban, the growth of other options like coffee shops, and a growing awareness of alcohol-related health issues. Where I lay my head, there are now more coffee shops than pubs.

On a pint selling for €6 to €7.50, a publican makes a profit of 20 to 30 percent but, finances aside, for many there has been that rethink related to health in an era focused on such and its attendant issues. Strangely, one of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink tend to die sooner than those who do, according to the journal Alcoholism: Clinical And Experimental Research.

Moderate drinking, defined as one to three drinks (units) a day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in almost all studies. Moderate imbibing is thought to improve overall health and, importantly, sociability because people who are isolated don't have as many near by who can notice potential health issues. In rural Ireland, for many the pub is the only home from home.

The growing popularity of non-alcoholic beer and wine, globally, is one of the fastest-growing beverage categories, as the competition ups among brewers to seek out more complex, more challenging options.

Meantime, an Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) study shows a huge increase in alcohol sales from supermarkets and off-licenses year on year.

More not-so-good news just in: Irish guidelines on the "low-risk” limit of alcohol a person can drink in a week may need to be changed, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) says in a just-published report. It is not only people who drink heavily or who are dependent on alcohol that are harmed by it – how alcohol is consumed also matters. People who drink the same amount each week may have different risks depending on whether they spread the drinking across the week or whether they drink a lot in short amounts of time.

The guidelines may need to be reconsidered based on the latest research, according to the HIQA review. Current guidelines, set in 2015, for low-risk drinking recommend fewer than 11 drinks a week for women and 17 for men, although today there is now no strong basis for the different thresholds for men and women.

After all that sobering news, I need a drink... maybe two.