Publican fears having to cancel sports channels to pay bills

A Belfast publican has told how the cost-of-living crisis has left him facing a Catch 22 choice as he is now considering cancelling his BT and Sky subscriptions in order to stay open.

Gerard Keenan and his wife Sinead, who own Dan’s Bar in west Belfast were landed with a bill for one month’s electricity usage thet was triple what it used to be, despite in vesting in a range of energy saving measures.

“We can’t save any more,” Gerard said. “We have all the sensor lights now and we turn off our lights in the morning and try to rely on daylight coming through the door instead.

“After I got word the electricity bill would be so high, I said to Sinead we’d have to cancel our Sky and BT Sports, which cost us about £1,400 or £1,500 a month. But she said if we do that we’ll lose what tiny number of customers we have who rely on us to come and watch the football.”

He’s also awaiting a gas bill, with supplier SSE Airtricity announcing a 35.4% increase two weeks ago.

“Thankfully we haven’t had our gas on in a while because the weather’s been pretty good, so that’s not even worth thinking about right now,” he added.

“It’s just a matter of holding on to what we have, which is why Sinead is so against getting rid of the Sky and BT Sports.

“But it’s going to have to be cancelled in order for us to survive, which is a problem in itself as we are a sports-driven pub.

“Who’s going to want to come back to Dan’s to watch the football whenever it isn’t even being shown?”