Publicans are calling for the introduction of a special tax credit scheme on draught beer as lobbying ahead of this year’s Budget begins in earnest.

The vintners, who have met with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and ministers in their campaign, are calling for a tax credit valued at a rate of €20 per 50 litre keg supplied to the pubs that would only be applied to draught beer.

It is understood that the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) last year lobbied for a reduction in excise duty on alcohol, but the move was resisted due to the fact that the excise would have to be applied to all alcohol sold in the State and not just that sold in pubs.

More than 2,200 pubs have closed in Ireland since 2005, representing a 25.6% drop.

The rate of closure has continued to intensify according to the VFI, with the average rate of closure over the past 20 years standing at 112 per annum.

This has since increased to 128 closures per year for the period 2019-2025, indicating an increasing rate of market failure, according to publicans.

The scheme would save publicans the equivalent to 40% of the excise paid on a keg of Guinness and would be calculated based on the verified number of kegs purchased and supplied to the pub in the previous year.

According to the VFI, the tax credit would be capped at €20,000 per licensed premises per annum, ensuring the benefits are more proportionately directed towards smaller pubs.

The group has claimed that the total cost of the proposed tax credit scheme in a full year would be around €75million, which is approximately half of the estimated annual cost of the Section 481 film/TV tax credit in 2026.

Responding to parliamentary questions from backbench TDs on the matter this week, Tánaiste Simon Harris said: ‘The Government is conscious of the challenges facing all businesses in the current economic climate, including the pub sector.

‘The Cost of Business Advisory Forum is working to look at the structural issues that are driving up costs and the steps that could be taken to mitigate them. A range of direct expenditure supports are also available to businesses, and details can be found online on the National Enterprise Hub.’

He also noted that there had been ‘no general increase in excise duty rates for alcohol’ since 2014.

‘While the retail price of beer has risen over that period, the excise duty has remained unchanged and, therefore, the total tax as a percentage of the retail price of each pint is now lower than it was more than a decade ago,’ Mr Harris said.

However, he added: ‘Notwithstanding the above, the matters raised in the submission will continue to inform ongoing policy considerations in the context of the budgetary process.’

Eoin Lyons, the head of marketing and communications for the VFI, said the move was unlikely to lead to cheaper pints and was simply to help rural pubs stay in business.

He said: ‘This is more to keep pubs going, so this won’t affect the price of a pint as such. This is built to battle all the other costs that publicans have had to face over recent years.

‘So a lot of the costs that have come over the past number of years have been government-related costs around labour costs. So this is more of a general money back in your pocket.’

Mr Lyons said the VFI was happy the proposal was ‘fully compliant’ with EU law and that it was a focused measure.

He said they had received a ‘good’ reaction from across Leinster House and had met with Enterprise Minister Peter Burke, junior minister Seán Canney and others alongside the Taoiseach recently.