The days when "a pint of plain was your only man" are officially over. For the first time this year off- licences sold more drink than pubs. Beer accounted for just half of all sales of alcohol while wine continued its dizzying ascent in the list of favourite drinks to account for 22pc of the overall market.

Whatever hope remained that the traditional Irish pub might survive a Celtic Tiger mauling was also banished this year.

Sales of pubs in the greater Dublin area are down 40pc since January and another 300 rural pubs have called last orders for the last time.

Economic prosperity has transformed Flann O'Brien's infamous 'working man' into a harried office drone with a huge mortgage and a long commute. A crisp glass of Chablis in front of the widescreen is now the tipple of choice rather than the famed pint of porter in the cosy confines of a smoky bar.

"There is a huge lifestyle change which has been the underlying driver of consumption in the last number of years," says Michael Patten, chair of the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland and corporate relations director of Diageo.

"All the factors that go with a vibrant economy -- high employment, dual income families -- and a young workforce means time to go to the pub is not there. Week-long consumption in the pub has dropped very significantly," he says.

Just six years ago 70pc of alcohol sales were in pubs. But this year, according to Diageo figures, that figure will have dropped to 48pc. The trend is set to continue, says Mr Patten, with trade sales forecast to decline by a further 5pc in the coming year.

Aside from lifestyle changes, a series of government regulations haven't helped. First there was the smoking ban; then the Groceries Order last year deregulated drink sales in the off-trade. Now the fear factor associated with random breath testing means that punters are more likely to do their drinking at home.

"If the consumer is shifting from on-trade (pubs) to off-trade that's shaping what they're drinking and when they're drinking," says Mr Patten.

About 70pc of beer is sold in pubs which means the shift to home drinking saw beer's share of the alcohol mix drop to 50pc this year compared with 70pc in 1997. Wine on the other hand has risen from 8pc of the market 10 years ago to 22pc today.

Markets adapt and, in an effort to lure people back, the most successful pubs are focusing more on food.

"Almost by accident more and more pubs are moving towards the cafe style that Michael McDowell envisaged some years back but it's by force of marketplace rather than by force of licensing," says Mr Patten.

Louis Fitzgerald owns a range of Dublin-based pubs, both suburban and city centre, along with The Quays in Galway and The Roost in Maynooth.

"In the last number of years we've seen a decline in sales of alcohol in our pubs. We've rescued it somewhat and rescued our costs. I'd be happy enough where I am now but we've been working very hard to promote and upgrade our pubs."

Food is a critical part of the mix, he says. "We're looking at incorporating more restaurants into the pubs. We've had pub food up to now but we're looking at expanding that."

Fitzgerald reckons that a good pub/restaurant can generate about 65pc of its turnover from food.

"I think on average you're looking at 50/50 at the moment," he says.

"There will be fewer of the traditional pubs but they will be there and there will be a great business in them. But with new pubs and even with existing pubs we will have to look at food."

The combination of social and legislative changes and a less certain economic outlook has had a dramatic effect on sales of pubs. In the Dublin area, Bill Morrissey of Morrissey's Estate Agents reckons that the market could be down as much as 40pc this year.

From a peak in 1998, when about 7pc of the greater Dublin area's 850 pubs changed hands, there was a dramatic decline to just 2.5pc in 2001. Last year, the figure climbed to 4.7pc but has now fallen again to about 2.7pc.

"Where the people are that's where the money is. Whether it is suburban, mid-town location or city centre, throughout the country there was demand for good quality units. The frustrating part this year was that because of general economics and the slow-down, people were slow to offer their premises to market," he says. "People are asking whether it's a good time or a bad time to move on."

Again he sees little improvement at least in the foreseeable future with activity staying low at least for the first quarter of next year. For rural areas the outlook is bleaker.

"It's where people don't have a strong business, where there aren't economies of scale. They're the people who are thinking of re-jigging their businesses or alternatively looking at an alternative use for the property and whether it's worth more for development," he says.

Last year an estimated 25pc of pub sales were for property development. This year the figure is closer to 35pc.

If even pubs with healthy cachement areas are feeling the pressure, the rural pub is in danger of disappearing altogether.

Pubs outside of Dublin are clearly worse hit. A small town with a population of say 2,000 might have as many as 50 licences compared with the 850 available in Dublin with a population of 1.5 million.

Paul Stevenson is president of the Licensed Vintners Federation, which represents 5,000 pubs outside of Dublin. He also runs a family pub in Ballymoate, Co Sligo.

About 1,000 rural pubs have closed down in the last three years, he reckons, with about 300 shutting this year.

"It would be sad if the rural pub was lost forever. A rural pub is part of the community," he says.

Stevenson puts the Government squarely in the frame for many of the problems facing country publicans.

"The high cost of drink is government policy. Excise duty on beer is over 10 times what it is in Germany.

"We've asked the Government several times to bring in phased harmonisation but they're making too much money. They want to be Europeans when it suits them."

But he also admits rural publicans have been slow to adapt to the changing market.

He says: "Pubs throughout the west of Ireland are closed during the day. Certainly you need to serve food, but also look at the people around you who are serving food and offer something different -- oriental or organic even."

He suggests coffee mornings and internet cafes as other ways for rural pubs to attract a day-time clientele.

"Pubs have been with us a long long time, and they will continue to be with us. But we can't keep sustaining these government hits. And certainly, the pub as we knew it will not exist in the future."

However Diageo's Michael Patten, says sales of Guinness, in decline primarily because of its exposure to the pub sector, are on the rebound.

"We've got the marketing credentials around Guinness right again and that's stimulating demand both in the trade and off. It goes to show our tendency in this country to write things off because of trends can be wrong. Trends can run so far and then we see a recovery," he says.

Independent off-licences feel threat from price cutting by the supermarkets

Turnover in the off-licence sector has doubled in the last five years but for most independents it's harder than ever to make money, according to the National Off-Licence Association.

The number of off-licences has trebled from 600 to 1,800 and below-cost selling from big supermarkets means the market is more competitive than ever, says Richard Barry, the association's secretary.

He estimates multiples -- large supermarket and convenience store chains -- account for as much as 40pc of the off-trade market in alcohol.

"Certainly the supermarkets, they're all on an expansion buzz. Any licences that are there to be bought, it tends to be them that are buying them," he says.

The Groceries Order, which deregulated alcohol sales in October 2006, is a serious bone of contention for publicans and independent off-licences. The National Off-Licence Association represents 340 independents, including family-owned groups like SuperValu.

"The net effect (of the Groceries Order) is that it has allowed large supermarkets to take budgets from elsewhere and pretty much sell alcohol at whatever cost to get people through the door. Competition has been good for the off-trade but it's got to be responsible competition. Selling beer at 30-40 cents a bottle is not responsible," says Mr Barry.

"You can't sell alcohol in the same way as you sell tins of beans. As an organisation we put a lot of time into training."

He accuses the supermarkets of doing the bare minimum of training.

Cheap supermarket beer is one of the biggest threats to rural pubs, according to Paul Stevenson of the Licensed Vintners Federation.

Abuse

"Young people are wheeling out trolley loads of beer and drinking with their friends. This abuse of alcohol is being blamed on publicans, and I certainly hate that because the safest place to have a drink, the most regulated to have a drink is in a pub," he says.

"I've people in my pub, I've served their grandfather. I've served their father. I'm certainly not going to let them abuse alcohol."

But according to Torlach Denihan, director of Retail Ireland, which represents multiples among other retailers, all the people he represents take their commitment to training seriously when it comes to the sale of alcohol.

"Market forces set the price at the moment. The Competition Authority takes a very strong view that prices for alcohol and other commodities covered by the order should be determined by market forces," he says.

- Carissa Casey