Government plans to introduce new cafe style bars fly in the face of reason, it was claimed today.
With justice minister Michael McDowell pushing for a revamp of the century old liquor laws the Vintners' Federation of Ireland warned that allowing more licences would create more problems than it solved.
Tadhg O'Sullivan, VFI chief executive said the closure of 200 pumps nationwide since March 2004 proved the industry was in crisis.
"The country is already over pubbed and we have too many licences," he said.
"The plans for cafe style bars are flying in the face of reason and flying in the face of recommendations made by the strategic taskforce on alcohol."
VFI members told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business that creating more licences would pose problems on two fronts.
They claimed the scourge of binge drinking and abuse of alcohol would be compounded and that the industry itself would be overrun with competition.
"Certainly the future of our licensing trade will be very bleak. More outlets, more problems," VFI President Seamus O'Donoghue told the committee.
The VFI leaders also told the committee that 26 pubs had been forced to close in the last year in County Clare.
The publicans' group said this compared to the creation of 140 jobs per week in the industry during 2002.
The VFI, which represents 6,000 rural pubs in Ireland, claimed more than a quarter of publicans had a turnover of only €60,000 per year.
The group claimed that there was a misconception that publicans turned over millions of euro in trade every year, but they said the truth showed that only 5 per cent of pub owners made more than 1 million euro per year.
PA