'If the pub and shop closes, it takes the heart and soul out of town or village'

The hospitality sector has taken a hit in recent years and Leitrim councillor felim Gurn who has run the Milestone Pub in Manorhamilton for the past 29 years, didn't hold back when he spoke about the topic to the Leitrim Observer this week.

A previous report, by the Leitrim Observer, noted that a significant number of pubs closed in Leitrim since 2005. 

Cllr Gurn said that food costs have "gone through the roof" and staff wages have risen significantly also. "When you have utility costs, insurance, rates, water, refuge, you are pulling out of one pot and something has to give."

He said that pubs are struggling is due to a myriad of reasons. 

He stated: "Years ago in small towns, there could have been up to ten shops on the main street and now the super pubs in bigger towns are eating up smaller pubs in our towns and villages. 

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He said that rising food costs are hitting people hard as well as childcare costs and mortgage and rent payments which is adding to the lack of socialising taking place outside of the home, in his view. "Then you running a car and paying your utilities and everything else."

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He continued that pubs are now "party-orientated" and "people don't go into a pub unless it's a party or a funeral or afterparty. Alcohol sales are down 25% and then there is also the cocaine problem in the country. Plus, GAA clubs have a training session at 8am on a Sunday morning which means the players won't go out but yet when sponsorship is needed, it's us they look to."

He added that when the world emerged from the Covid pandemic, people were out socialising more but stated that "because of a lack of taxis and transport in smaller rural towns, people, when they do go out, go out to bigger towns like Carrick and Sligo and Donegal town. Also people are saving to go to concerts and matches in Dublin and that's drawing from the rural community. Then you also have festivals happening all over the country."

He said that the "elephant in the room is the amount of tax we are paying, the VAT that we are paying in our sector. We have the highest excise duty in the whole of Europe.   

If you are supplying me with vegetables and meat, you don't play any VAT as there is no VAT on perishable goods but we pay VAT on that food."

He stressed: "If you take the pub, the shop etc out of town, you take the heart and soul out of the town and village. You can do all the public realms and regeneration projects you want. 

We are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and people can get a bad vibe off a town where a pub on a main junction is closed. This pub is open since 1880 and never closed before, until we came out of covid and now it's closed two days a week to keep our costs and overheads down because the footfall isn't there."

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He said that, in his view, the introduction of off licences to supermarkets is "what really killed the pubs".  

He expressed concern over the demise of family-run businesses throughout the country. "Who is going to be the next generation of family-run rural pubs or any family businesses? When you can have a government job that is 9-5 and you are off weekends and have a happier family life, who will deal with the stress of having 10 or 15 people employed and the same amount of suppliers?"

He concluded: "The government knows what they had to pay out to small businesses during covid so they must realise what they will have to pay if yet more small businesses close down and people are out of job."