Kildare losing a pub a year
Closing Irish pub
KILDARE has seen the closure of more than one pub every year over the last two decades, specifically 23 pubs have closed since 2005, leaving 168 hostelries overall in the county.
This was revealed in a new report from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) which shows that 2,054 pubs have closed down within the past 20 years.
The report shows that an average of 114 pubs have closed annually over the past 18 years, and the number of closures has risen in the last five years to 144 annual closures.
Counties Limerick (35.6%), Roscommon (31.9%), Cork (31.4%), Tipperary (31.2%) and Laois (30.6%) have seen the highest declines, each exceeding the national closure average of 24%. Seven counties experienced a decline of 30% or more in their number of pubs.
All 26 counties have experienced a decline in pub numbers since 2005. The lowest number of pub closures over the period came in Dublin which has seen a decline of 3% in pub numbers.
Other counties with lower closures rates include Meath (6.7%), (Wicklow (8.9%), Kildare (12%) and Carlow (14.2%).
This latest analysis comes on top of recently published data by the Restaurants Association of Ireland which found that 283 food-led businesses such as restaurants, cafés and gastropubs closed in the last six months of 2023, with a further 212 such businesses shuttered so far this year.
“The decline of over 2,000 pubs since 2005 reflects the real change and challenges this sector is dealing with said DIGI’s Communication Director Kathyrn D’Arcy “Pubs, restaurants, and hotels employ over 207,000 people which is one in 12 (8.3%) of all employees in the country”.
