Rural publicans have claimed the makers of Guinness have turned its back on country pubs by increasing the price of a pint of its products again.

Guinness owners Diageo have slapped seven cents on the price of a pint effective from February 2.

It’s up to each hostelry to decide whether to pass it on – but when VAT and publicans’ margins are included, the retail price of a pint of Guinness and other Diageo products will rise by about €0.20.

County Galway publicans claimed the move will encourage people to drink cans at home, and will hasten the demise of rural pubs.

The other main player Heineken – makers of Beamish and Murphy’s – is expected to follow suit.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) warned this latest price hike on draught products will pile pressure on rural pubs already struggling to survive.

Galway VFI Chair Joe Sheridan, who runs Tigh Breathnach in Dunmore and whose brother Cathal has Sheridan’s a gastropub in Milltown, said brewery price increases were “bad for business”, and could fuel further rural pub closures.

Mr Sheridan said costs are already up by 7% for Sky television, for insurance (up to 23%), labour, and his commercial rates are up by 200%.

“That’s all feeding into negative pressures on businesses. Turnover is for vanity, profit is sanity. If you reduce profit margin to a point that’s unsustainable, they will close.

“Pubs have closed all over the country in rural areas in the past 20 years and that’s not by chance,” said Mr Sheridan, a former Fianna Fáil County Councillor.

Micheál Ó Cadhain of Tigh Cadhain in Cill Chiaráin, Conamara, said Diageo had turned its back on rural pubs.

“Their snotty answer was the publican don’t have to put up the price. That riled me. Who is working for who here? We are selling their product. Most pubs in rural areas are family business and struggling. People are just about surviving,” he said.

He said there was a disconnect between Diageo, a multinational, and rural family run bars.

“There’s a laisse faire attitude to rural pubs and they feel they don’t need to support them because they’re not making them as much money as they did in the past. The saying ‘a yard of a counter was worth an acre of land’ is no longer true for rural pubs.

“Diageo don’t care about rural pubs anymore; they find us a hindrance to their business model. When it comes to rural areas, I’d say they’d prefer to see pubs closed and people drinking cans at home,” Mr Ó Cadhain said.

Caption: Micheál Ó Cadhain of Tigh Cadhain in Cill Chiaráin.

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