I have to admit I really doubt the veracity of the Mr. O'Keefe's repeated claim yesterday that we already have 12,000 pubs in Ireland.
What Mr. O'Keefe means is that there are 12,000 licenses in existence. The licensing laws were written in the early 20th century and haven't changed much since. The VFI, which represents pubs outside Dublin, has approximately 6,000 members. The LVA, which represents Dublin's publicans, has "750 members and collectively represents 95% of all publicans in Dublin". Add those two figures together and you fall a bit short of the "12,000". I was really annoyed that Damien Kiberd didn't challenge Mr. O'Keefe on that yesterday.
