IN THE land that gave the world the Irish-themed pub, who could have predicted that millions of euro would have to be spent on advertising campaigns encouraging Irish people to go out to their local bars in 2008?
As cash-strapped punters increasingly opted to drink at home this year, the drinks industry and publicans invested unprecedented amounts of money in marketing drives aimed at restoring the appeal of the pub.
Public health campaigner Prof Joe Barry of Trinity College Dublin says there are simply too many pubs in the State.
"There's about one pub for every 300 adults in the country. It's not surprising that there are closures because that's unsustainable. From a business point of view, there's a complete over-supply of pubs," he said.
"People blame the smoking ban and drink-driving legislation, and while I'm sure they're factors, there's a general drift towards urbanisation with post offices and banks also moving out of small places. A village might have seven or eight pubs. How can they all survive?"
Prof Barry said there was evidence that alcohol consumption had dropped a little this year, but the Republic's intake was still well above the European average.
"There's a lot of trouble brewing up healthwise unless we change our drinking behaviour and patterns," he said.
He suggested a good new year's resolution for the Government would be to link an alcohol policy to the National Drugs Strategy.
"We've got a fully comprehensive National Drugs Strategy, but for alcohol we've got bits and pieces of reports that are unconnected. It wouldn't cost much to link the two."
Prof Barry said the ready availability of cheap alcohol, in places such as supermarkets and petrol-filling stations, remained a problem.
"Drink is available anywhere, and you can buy a can of lager for a euro. People who've got drink dependency, particularly young people, are obviously attracted to these offers."
He advocated a minimum pricing structure.
Padraig Cribben, the chief executive of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), agreed on this point.
He said the sale of cheap alcohol in "uncontrolled environments" had fuelled underage drinking and anti-social behaviour.
"Alcohol should not be treated in the same manner as cornflakes, bananas or biscuits and needs to be sold under controlled conditions," he said, in his submission to the Government Alcohol Advisory Group back in February.
Now he said the Intoxicating Liquor Bill was a missed opportunity in some respects, although it did address certain areas such as off-licence opening hours and additional ministerial powers in relation to the advertising of special offers.
Mr Cribben said he was "more hopeful than confident" about the Sale of Alcohol Bill, which he expects in the first quarter of 2009.
"From a health point of view, the reality is that on the vast majority of occasions people use alcohol, it's being used sensibly and to a good end in a controlled environment," he said.
"If people are drinking at home in front of young children - you could say we would say that, wouldn't we - but I don't think that's good for the health of the nation and young people."
More than one in five youngsters (20.4 per cent aged 10 to 17) reported being drunk at least once in the last 30 days, according to the recently published State of the Nation's Children report, compiled by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews. However, when the data provided by children aged 11, 13 and 15 was analysed to draw international comparisons, Irish kids were not the worst behaved in this respect, with eight other countries reporting high levels of youth drunkenness.
At the beginning of this month, the VFI joined forces with the Dublin-based Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) to announce a one-year freeze in drink prices in pubs.
They said the commitment was being made in light of the deteriorating economic situation and the growing pressure on consumer spending.
They claimed the initiative was member-driven: "This commitment reflects our members' concerns that the pub trade should do its bit in terms of keeping costs down and providing value for money."
The two organisations also called on the drinks suppliers and manufacturers to support this initiative by not exceeding current price structures over the coming year. And they warned that any attempt to exceed current pricing levels would provoke an extremely negative response from consumers and perhaps even threaten the ability of members to maintain their freeze.
The issue of blood/alcohol levels for motorists was another contentious issue.
Writing in this newspaper in March, Mr Cribben said criminalising someone who has one pint while ignoring other factors would increase rural isolation without reducing road deaths.
Susan Gray, founder of Parents Against Road Carnage, strongly disagreed, arguing that reaction times and motor skills deteriorate even after a small amount of alcohol.
The Budget was not unkind to publicans, although they argued that the VAT increase hurt publicans operating close to the border, and the excise increase on wine was not welcomed by them.
According to the Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society (MEAS) organisation, per capita alcohol consumption in Ireland is expected to decrease at an accelerated rate of about 8 per cent this year, following on from a declining trend evident since 2001.
The Slán survey of 2007 reported a reduction - from nine alcoholic drinks in 2002 to seven in 2007 - in the average number of drinks consumed in an average week.
The survey found that the percentage of drivers who reported driving a car after consuming two or more standard drinks in the past year had also decreased, from 16 per cent in 2002 to 12 per cent in 2007.
There was also a decrease in the percentage of respondents who reported consuming six or more standard drinks at least once a week, from 45 per cent in 2002 to 28 per cent in 2007.
The percentage consuming over the recommended weekly alcohol limit also decreased, from 13 per cent in 2002 to 8 per cent in 2007. There was a 7 per cent reduction in drink-drive offences in the 10-month period January to October 2008 relative to the same period in 2007.
In the same period road fatalities reduced by 34, from 261 to 227.
'As in the retail sector, this year has been a mixed bag for publicans'
Reduced discretionary spending has seen alcohol consumption fall by some 8 per cent this year, according to the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI).
VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben said the decrease had been a factor in increasing the financial difficulties faced by pubs, with bar sales down 2.3 per cent in October and 11 per cent for the year.
"It's fair to say 2008 has been a mixed bag for publicans. Like retail it has had ups and downs and the pub trade has not been immune to these," he said.
"A lot of activity in pubs is now driven by events, such as live music and sports, and people have to work a lot smarter to achieve the sale than before."
Mr Cribben said the availability of cut-price alcohol in supermarkets had contributed to this problem, with drink now selling like bread or bananas in some places. "This certainly has an effect. It leads to a lot of the current misuse of alcohol and it also gives the majority of people who use it sensibly a bad name."
Publicans are bracing themselves for a difficult year and the industry has been forced to take action to respond to the problems. Earlier this month, the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA), which represents publicans in Dublin, and the VFI, representing publicans in the rest of the State, announced a year-long price freeze on drinks.
Mr Cribben hopes the move will be seen as a strong gesture by the public. "When we decided we were going to hold prices it was for two reasons. We wanted to help publicans sustain their own business and also to allow people who have less money than before to still be able to make it out for a pint."
The LVA and VFI have also called on drinks suppliers and manufacturers to support the freeze by not exceeding price structures during 2009, saying attempts to exceed current pricing levels "would provoke an extremely negative response" from consumers.
"We're the price takers not the price makers and unfortunately the price of things that impinge on the viability of a pub, like labour and Sky Sports, have gone up," Mr Cribben said.
A decade ago pubs accounted for 66 per cent of the drinks trade, a figure that is now below 50 per cent. The VFI said 1,500 pubs had closed since 2001.
Rural pubs were heavily hit by the increased implementation of drink driving legislation, but earlier this year the biggest pub group in Dublin, Thomas Read, went into interim examinership amid efforts to rescue the business, highlighting problems across the board.
Despite the negatives, Mr Cribben does not believe it will all be bad news for pubs in 2009. "We're confident that the pub will survive and that there is a good enough offering. People may turn to the pub for their discretionary spending now that money is a bit tighter. So it's not all doom gloom."
Steven Carroll