Restaurant industry on a knife edge: ‘We are working harder than ever to keep our businesses going’

With the ­restaurant industry on a knife edge, and over 300 closures in the past six months, I’m wondering what sort of reception politicians and members of the Government seriously expect when they roll up, all delighted with themselves, in their ministerial Mercs to their favourite restaurant for a ­Chateaubriand and a Burgundy.

While they have the security of enormous salaries, their hosts aren’t sure if they can stretch to the end of the month without closing their doors and putting their staff out of work.

Whether up in the Big Smoke or down home in their local neighbourhood eatery, where they may even have been to school with the owner, I’ve no doubt the restaurateurs will be professional and charming, though I’m sure many of them will be thinking: They know we are on our knees, so why aren’t those in power doing more to help us?

Why are they crippling us with this Vat hike when the industry is still trying to recover? Why aren’t they allowing us more time at the 9pc emergency rate established in the pandemic, which would help enormously with cash flow, when we’re all screwed to the wall with rising costs, salaries, and services? Every day now, it seems more restaurateurs are pulling down the shutters saying that no matter what they do, or how much they love their business, they can no longer make it a viable operation.

The way it’s going, our politicians will soon be sitting, can in hand and takeaway curry on their knees, while watching the RTÉ debacle on Prime Time, because their favourite restaurants will no longer be there.​

Being a restaurateur is a very tough business with anti-social hours and dealing with a sometimes difficult public is not always a picnic. It always reminds me of the theatrical business; once the “curtain” goes up the whole restaurant crew are on stage with smiles on their faces doing their best to ensure their “audience” has a great experience. You really have to love the business to do it.

It really is shocking that 300 restaurants and cafes have closed in Ireland in the past six months. Everyone loses out, from the owner and their staff to the food suppliers and the public themselves who lose yet another maybe vital social hub, not to mention the taxman, who’ll be left collecting 13.5pc of nothing.

Alan Clancy of the NolaClan Group, which owns 17 restaurants, bars and venues countrywide, is one of the best-known names in the industry. He owns such familiar spots as House in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast, No. 37 Dawson Street, The Gables in Foxrock and The Old Warehouse in Tullamore in partnership with the golfer Shane Lowry.

“The Vat increase is the latest blow to Ireland’s hospitality business, which has never really recovered from the pandemic. To have reinstated the 13.5pc Vat rate so close to the minimum wage increase was a double blow with so much labour involved in the food services industry,” Alan said.

“I had to close a couple of businesses myself recently to make sure others were able to survive. And as a restaurateur and venue owner, my team and I are working harder than ever to keep our businesses going.”

Liam Edwards of Jim Edwards ­gastropub and seafood restaurant in Kinsale, Co Cork, and former president of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), said: “We have been in business over 50 years and have always known that the cost of doing business in this country has been a major obstacle but never have we seen the struggles we face today.

“In the last 12 months we’ve seen huge rises in wages, food and energy costs. On top of this our rates and ­insurance have remained higher than most of our EU counterparts.

“While we will continue to tackle these costs, the one cost that has made a lot of our businesses unviable is the Vat rate moving to 13.5pc. We need this back to 9pc now to save our restaurants.”

Cork city too has seen a swathe of closures in 2024 with many of its beloved mainstays going the way of the dodo. Nash 19 for example, or Pigalle, not to mention the 60-year-old Tung Sing Chinese Restaurant on Patrick Street where many a Corkonian nipper had their first taste of “exotic” food. Only last week, as I sat writing this, news of the closure of another Cork restaurant, Burnt Pizza, came in.

On the Wild Atlantic Way, after 30 years in business, Eithna O’Sullivan announced the closure of her famed seafood restaurant, Eithna’s By The Sea in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, saying: “In the current climate, running small businesses has become very challenging, together with the difficulties of sourcing seasonal staff, have made this decision happen at this time.”

Anthony Gray, another former RAI president and owner of two top Sligo restaurants, Eala Bhán and Hooked, who put the Sligo food trail on the map, has also appealed to the Government to reinstate the Vat rate for food-led businesses to avoid further closures and associated job losses.

Further south, in the ever-popular tourist town of Clifden, Co ­Galway, Sinéad Foyle and Philippa Duff, who own the brilliant Sea Hare cafe and who survived the pandemic and found a dream site for their business, have said: “That’s a wrap. We are in hospitality, so we are hospitable, kind, hardworking, fair, generous etc. Fighting the Government is just too much now. Thanks to you all.”​

In my neck of the woods, to ­everyone’s surprise, Colm Corcoran and his wife Barbara shut their excellent Coal in Blackrock, Dublin. “We had hoped to have a much longer occupancy in Blackrock,” they said. “After surviving two years of varying restrictions, with the help of incredibly loyal staff and huge support from our regular customers, we thought getting through Covid was the hardest obstacle we would ever face, until 2023 brought a new set of challenges.

“We were a small operation, but the increased Vat rate added so much pressure to an already strained situation and was certainly one of the deciding factors, along with other government policies, that led us to closing our doors. At any given time, we employed approximately 15 people, all paying their taxes and PRSI, and like to think that we provided a nice neighbourhood restaurant for people to meet and socialise in. It seems that the Government does not value what a small family-run restaurant can bring to a neighbourhood.”

In his interview with me last week in Life magazine, Adrian Cummins, RAI chief executive said: “We’ve shown the Government that we were a viable industry before September 2023, and now we’re not a viable industry, and more closures will be seen.”

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