LIMERICK has recorded the highest pub closure rate in Ireland with well over a third of Treaty pubs shutting their doors since 2005.
A new report by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) revealed 178 pubs have closed across the county between 2005 and 2024 – a 37.2 per cent decline.
There were 300 pubs across Limerick in 2024, compared to 478 in 2005.
The report, compiled by Economist and Associate Professor Emeritus at DCU Anthony Foley, showed an average of 112 pubs stop trading every year across Ireland, with a further 600 to 1,000 closures estimated overt the next decade.
All 26 counties experienced declined in pub numbers, with Offaly (down 34.1 per cent), Cork (32.7), Roscommon (32.3) and Tipperary (32) also reporting high numbers of closures.
The lowest decrease was in Dublin with a drop of 1.7 per cent.
DIGI say the “high cost of doing business was a major contributory factor to the alarming rate of closures”.
The group are now calling on the government to use the upcoming budget to introduce a 10 per cent cut in excise, which currently stands as the second highest in the European Union.
The author of the report, Professor Tony Foley, said that his work “reveals a pattern of pub closures across Ireland, particularly in rural Ireland in recent years”.
“The addition of profound economic uncertainty through US trade tariffs and reduced levels of inbound tourism further threaten the financial foundations of family-owned pubs across the country. In the absence of government intervention, we are likely to see a further 600 to 1,000 pubs close over the coming decade.”
