The Support Your Local campaign, which is backed by publicans, restaurants, hotels, independent off-licences, and drinks suppliers today called for an excise reduction on alcohol to help create jobs in Mayo.
The industry currently supports 3,718 jobs across the county, which accounts for 8.3 per cent of total employment and an annual wage bill of €84 million. British MP Greg Mulholland, who runs the Save the Pub group in the UK, told Irish TDs at an Oireachtas Jobs Committee earlier this year - a beer duty cut in the UK created 26,000 jobs. Bart Storan, campaign manager for Support Your Local, said: “We are calling on the Government to reverse excise on alcohol in the next Budget. Excise duty is a regressive tax - a tax on the hard-pressed Irish consumers. We want government to facilitate growth in this sector, see growth outside of Dublin – in the cities and counties around the country, Government needs to reverse this tax.“ There are more than 430 hotels and pubs in Mayo yet, in less than 12 months (between December 2012 and October 2013 ) the Government increased excise on beer by 44 per cent; excise on spirits by 37 per cent; and excise on wine by 62 per cent.
“The Irish consumer is being totally ripped off by the Government with 30 per cent of the price of a pint now going straight to the Exchequer. Ireland is now the most expensive country in the world to buy alcohol, with beer excise up by a staggering 44 per cent since 2012. The Minister must use the opportunity presented to him with Budget 2016 to bring our excise levels into line with European norms, and help to support local jobs.”
