Nearly 400 pubs in Cork have shut in the past 20 years - the third highest in the country, after Limerick and Offaly.
A new report by The Drinks Industry Group of Ireland is calling for a ten per cent reduction in excise duty in the Budget, after it revealed two thousand, one-hundred and nineteen pubs closed here since 2005.
Speaking to RedFM News, Cork publican and president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland Michael O’Donovan says rural areas are being hit especially hard by closures:
"Some countries in Europe are already offering grants to towns and villages where they have lost bars and we're heading in that direction because the bar is kind of the last social outlet in rural communities."
