Owner Áine fears small pubs may have no choice but to close
Áine Murphy
The owner of a popular Cork city bar is warning some pubs ‘may not last long without government help’ as pressures pile on during the cost-of-living crisis.
Áine Murphy, who runs The Harp bar on the Pouladuff Road, has no plans to close her much-loved establishment anytime soon. But she fears other publicans across Ireland may not have a choice if they don’t get some relief from high VAT rates and bills like electricity, heating, stock, and more. The publican has been running The Harp for the past five years, and is currently working with her team on how best to tackle the latest pint price increases.
It was recently unveiled that Heineken would be upping the prices on draught beers from 16th February onwards – these include Beamish and Murphy’s, along with Heineken, Heineken 0.0, Coors, Tiger, Birra Moretti and Orchard Thieves. It follows another price hike announced by Diageo earlier this month, where it was confirmed that the price of standard Guinness and Guinness 0.0 will rise by 7 cents and 10 cents respectively on February 2nd.
Speaking to Cork Beo, Áine said she’s doing her best to ensure the new increases impact customers as little as possible. She said: “When prices went up before, I’ve taken the hit myself a number of times, but you can only do so much.
“To be honest, I was expecting Heineken’s increase after Diageo. When one goes up, the other does too. It’s not an option to stop buying one of them; you have to give customers what they want. Like most customers know it’s not us that’s doing it, but a lot of people coming in here have only a certain amount of money to spend. The question is how much more of these increases will there be?”
The Harp Bar in Ballyphehane
The Cork publican stressed that cost-of-living issues can sometimes hit communities harder than local businesses. Áine said that many people visit Harp Bar to socialise, including one 84-year-old man who comes in three times a week just to get out of the house. The well-known pub also regularly sponsors local sports clubs and hosts fundraisers for charities like Cork City Missing Persons Search and Recovery – both of which could be impacted if costs keep going up.
She said: “I’m lucky in that I wake up and think ‘Great, I can keep things going’… I often do have a fear that I might have to close. And that’s the last thing I want for my customers. The regulars are like family, you’d be everything for them – counsellor, marriage counsellor, everything.”
To help ease the rising pressures on publicans, Áine is calling for government to decrease the 23% VAT rate for wet pubs – even if only for a short while – and for more restrictions to slow down drink price increases. She said: “VAT would definitely have to come down. Even if it was only for a short period, it would give businesses a chance to get on top of things, help people pay bills. We also need some cap on price hikes. At least something like that after a price hike, that price would stay for a few years before increasing again.”
She also had a clear message for everyone about the new increases: “However much pubs are raising prices is not greed. When something goes up, you have go up with it.”
As part of Budget 2026, it was confirmed that the VAT rate on food, catering and hairdressing services will be reduced from 13.5% to 9% starting in July – hotels and wet pubs are not included in this measure.