Editorial: Mayo town centres facing bleak futures due to unsustainable business costs

The loss of two family-run restaurants in Mayo within days of one another last week has raised alarm bells over the future of the sector.

Mill Lane in Castlebar and Carney's, Ballinrobe, were both popular and busy establishments with loyal customer bases.

Yet less than four weeks after their busiest trading periods, they make closure announcements that stun their local communities and commercial sectors.

And while many restaurants have closed before in Mayo and been swiftly replaced by others, these latest closures point to a serious vulnerability within the industry in terms of future sustainability.

In other words, the capacity of a restaurant proprietor - or indeed any small businesses owner - to make a decent living in the face of crippling rising costs, including rates, insurance, staff and electricity, before serving a single customer.

This is not another argument about reducing the VAT rate on such businesses, it's about extending a lifeline to a sector in rural Ireland that is slowly dying on its feet because, essentially, the effort is simply not worth it any more for many.

In an interview with this newspaper, Paudy O'Malley revealed that the return from the time, effort and cost of running a restaurant did not offer long-term financial security to him and his family, leaving him with no option but to shut his doors.

In explaining their closure decision, the operators of Carney's in Ballinrobe outlined in a statement: "The constant increases and the cost of doing business keep the margins tight and for that reason we have decided not to invest further."

It is important that our new government takes an urgent look at the situation because it is going to get worse.

The Increased Cost of Business (ICOB) grant in Budget 2024 and the Power Up Grant of €4,000 in Budget 2025 are helpful, of course, but don't go far enough.

And, indeed, many businesses are falling through the cracks in terms of being able to access these because they are in rates arrears or on a payment plan.

Yes, the situation is complex and there is no simple one-fix-all solution.

But the reality is, if our ministers and TDs don't already know it, provincial town centres like Castlebar and Ballinrobe are facing a bleak future because they've become far too expensive in which to do business.