Pubs to employ 41% more this Summer

Pubs in traditional tourist areas are likely to create an additional 5,000 seasonal jobs this Summer, bringing the total for seasonal employment over the Summer months up by 41% to 17,000 according to research undertaken by the VFI.

The VFI estimates that some 2,500 of the 4,000 pubs in the Federation are situated in these traditional tourist areas.

Each Summer season pubs in these areas employ an additional five (4.8) seasonal staff creating 12,000 jobs. With CSO figures outlining an increase of over 16% in visitor numbers for the first three months of 2016, research outlines how these same 2,500 pubs will employ a further two additional staff this Summer creating 5,000 extra jobs, bringing the total of expected seasonal jobs to 17,000.

The news comes during the VFI’s AGM being held in Clayton White’s Hotel in Wexford this year.

The increase is solely attributed to the expected significant rise in overseas and domestic tourism numbers this Summer.

“The creation of these additional seasonal jobs is tremendous news for our economy and is clear evidence that the tourism industry is thriving,” commented the new Federation President Pat Crotty from Kilkenny’s Paris Texas café bar, “The demand for additional seasonal staff to accommodate rising tourism numbers only highlights how popular the pub is amongst visitors to Ireland.”

However Pat Crotty continued, “While tourism is on the up there are many external and some internal issues that could dampen the growth.

“We must try to control the controllables and the high level of excise is one of the main ones. Ireland already has one of the highest levels of excise in the EU and we need to make the country less expensive for tourists. It’s important to point out that it’s not just our ranking in the European excise table that counts – it’s how far we are ahead of others that’s the real problem. For example the excise on beer is 10 times in Ireland what it is in Spain or Portugal.”