Publicans across the county have been hit with increases of more than a third in insurance costs over the past year – despite the fact that the vast majority have not had any claims against them.
But the spiralling prices have led one leading vintner to claim that all publicans are being ‘tarred with the one brush’ when it comes to insurance premiums – and that is only hiking up the problems for so many in the trade who are already under huge pressure.
Publicans in rural parts of County Galway are paying on average around €3,500 for insurance – and double that or more in the city.
County Galway VFI spokesman, Cllr Timmy Broderick told The Connacht Tribune that rural publicans were facing a major battle to survive and the increasing insurance costs was another huge blow to sustain.
The Kilconnell-based publican said that he had never had a claim on his premises and yet his insurance costs skyrocketed by more than a third over the past year.
And he said that a lot of the problem was that insurance companies were settling claims outside the court process and then “hammering” the publicans on foot of this.
“The insurance companies are giving in too easy and once they do this, they are loading the rest of us with increased premiums. We have called on the Government to look into this but their silence is deafening,” Cllr Broderick added.
The VFI revealed that 88% of publicans surveyed experienced an increase in their business insurance premiums over the past couple of years.
Of the publicans who experienced an increase in insurance costs, 39% saw an increase of between 20% and 40% and 12% had increases over 40%.
Cllr Broderick said that the main problem is that many customers are claims conscious which is rising the cost of insurance for all publicans.
When asked to rank the varying costs of running a pub, business insurance was cited as the cost of most major concern even ahead of commercial rates and TV subscriptions.
Meanwhile, 44% of publicans attributed the rising cost of premiums to high legal costs in settling claims, while a further 27% believed increases were solely connected to pricing policies of insurers.
Timmy Broderick says that no consideration was given to rural publicans who are being treated the same as those in Dublin City which turnover considerably more profits than their ‘country cousins’.
“The rural pub is still a landmark business and one that we want to hold on to. But Governments are making life difficult to make it sustainable and increasing insurance costs are just another mechanism for driving us out of business,” Cllr Broderick added.