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.
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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.
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:
