The Clare Chair of the Vintners Federation of Ireland claims publicans are forced to pay bills of up to €25,000 a year for Sky Sports or risk losing their business.
The television provider is clamping down on unauthorised match screenings, where a pub licenece is required as opposed to household Sky.
But the VFI says that the cost of screening matches is more than €600 per game for even small rural pubs and that many bar owners are under pressure because of it.
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Darragh McAllister runs Lucas’s Bar and Considine’s in Ennis and says it’s an extremely difficult decision that’s facing those running pubs, particularly outside of the big towns:
