Mr. Greg Mulholland:

I thank the Chairman for the welcome, the joint committee for inviting me and members for their attendance. This is my first time before a parliamentary committee in Ireland and it is a real pleasure. I have been a member of select committees in the UK Parliament for the past ten years but am here in my capacity as the chair of the cross-party Save the Pub Group, which I established with other Members from all political parties back in 2009. We did that because we were concerned about the rate of pub closures in the United Kingdom and the reasons behind that. A document I have to hand for circulation to members is the mission statement we published as an all-party group in 2009, which would provide members with a sense of our work on some issues on which we have been campaigning. I have taken a real interest in this issue and have become something of a champion for these issues. Clearly, the joint committee's particular interest is the economic impact of measures governments can take which are pub-friendly and that can have a direct effect on jobs and I will restrict my comments to those areas in the five minutes allotted to me.

It is important to state, before so doing, that while there are huge similarities between pubs in the United Kingdom and the Irish pub and the role it plays in the community and nation of Ireland, there also are highly significant differences between the pub sector in the two countries and it is important to bear that in mind. When it comes to the issue of jobs and economic impact in particular, we are looking at the taxation policies and this has been a real focus for us as group in recent years. I am well aware of the double whammy here in Ireland with the 23% VAT rate on alcoholic drinks, which is offset slightly by the 9% VAT rate on the hospitality industry. Incidentally, that is something for which we are campaigning in the United Kingdom but for which we are not meeting with any success thus far. As members are aware, we have been successful with regard to beer excise duty. Until recent changes in the United Kingdom, the two countries have had among the very highest beer excise duties. Moreover, through organisations like the British Beer and Pub Association and the Campaign for Real Ale, CAMRA, members should please follow up with me regarding any information they seek and I will provide factual information to them from the various surveys. However, it was clear from surveys that the price of a pint in the on-trade in pubs was causing a decline because it was making it less attractive to go to the pubs. Moreover, while the beer excise rises through the beer duty escalator, which we have had in place for a number of years, was also affecting the off-trade and supermarkets, the latter in particular were able to absorb them and often did not increase their prices at all. Consequently, after a long-fought campaign, we managed to have the beer duty escalator abolished and since then, we have had two further cuts in beer duty. We actually have achieved a cut in beer duty. I will provide the joint committee with some research, as ultimately one must be able to back up one's facts, and research was carried out before the third and most recent cut in beer duty by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, which I will happily share with members. It is estimated that 26,000 jobs were created from the abolition of the beer duty escalator alone, which is highly significant. A lot of those jobs are in brewing, as opposed to pubs because clearly, the tax is levied at the producer level but many medium-sized breweries, in particular, were unable to invest in their plants and staff.

The abolition of the duty escalator has also led to higher investment. It is estimated that in 2014 investment was £61 million higher than it would have been if the duty escalator had been maintained and the price of a pint was 16 pence lower before the third cut in beer duty than it would have been under a beer duty escalator. This has led to 750 million more pints being sold in the on-trade and clearly this increase has had a significant effect. These estimates were calculated before the third beer duty and further research will be done on the effects of the duty cuts which have provided further significant and good news.

The other issue directly related to pubs is the business rate relief which has been extended to pubs, although the Save the Pub Group would like it to be directly focused on pubs.

There is clear, cold, hard evidence that the reduction in beer duty to a much more competitive level in the United Kingdom compared to European competitors has had a direct effect, not only on helping to restore confidence in the pub sector but also in terms of further investment and direct jobs.