Measures look at curbing Ireland’s culture of binge-drinking
The Commission, set up to provide recommendations on improving the drinks industry, delivered its final report to Justice Minister Michael McDowell just over a year ago.
But while the Commission was trying to finalise its recommendations, the lack of a clear Government policy became very apparent, Mr Holmes said.
The representatives from the Departments of Health and Enterprise, Trade and Employment were opposed to each other.
"You had Enterprise pushing for a free market on alcohol and Health demanding that it be limited, so it was impossible to get agreement when they were both pushing two different agendas," Mr Holmes said.
Responsibility for liquor licensing should be taken away from departments that have any vested interest in it and put under the control of the Department of the Taoiseach just like Britain where the Prime Minister's office controls it, says Mr Holmes.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell, however, did say that a cross-department approach must be taken to solving the problem of underage drinking when he published the Intoxicating Liquor Act last year.
And a special task force has been set up to deal with the whole health issue of drink following the publication of the Liquor Licensing Commission report last year. But Mr Holmes believes that this is not enough. "We need to do more than setting up a task force that deals with the health issue - the Government itself must lead with a coherent policy," he said.
But a Justice Department spokesman rejected this claim. He said that since Mr McDowell brought in the Intoxicating Liquor Act in 2003 which gave gardaí new powers of arrest for drink-related incidents, there has been a dramatic decline in assaults.
The Commission also recommended that new licences be issued to smaller owner occupier pubs to stop the promotion of super pubs and promote a more civilised "cafe" style approach to drinking.
It is likely that Minister McDowell will include this recommendation in the Intoxicating Liquor Consolidation Act due to be published later this year.
Mr Holmes also believes that the drinks industry had too much influence on the Government-appointed Commission set up to recommend how alcohol should be sold.
"Seven out of the 17 Commission members had links to the drinks, hotel, and nightclub industries and all they needed was the support of two other members to block any proposal they did not like," Mr Holmes said.
But the Vintner Federation of Ireland (VFI) rejected his claim.
Chief executive Tadhg O'Sullivan said: "The Commission was set up to examine the drinks industry. Surely we are entitled to have members on it just like representatives of the farmers should be put on any Commission examining the problems of agriculture?"
But Mr Holmes said that he personally tried to get several recommendations into the Commission's final report, but failed because he could not get overall support.
Among the proposals that he failed to get sanctioned by the Commissioner were:
Enforcement of the nightclub numbers limit with a ticketing system.
A reduction in the "outrageous" price of soft drinks.
A ban on the sale of Red Bull.
Government policy on drink and leadership by an non-aligned department.
Proper mandatory ID cards for over 18s.
The Commission did succeed in banning drinks promotions among young people. Unfortunately this came too late for the many teenagers who were extremely drunk coming out of Annabels nightclub, said Mr Holmes, referring to the high-profile case where Brian Murphy died.
"But hopefully Minister McDowell will take on board our recommendations on soft drinks and Red Bull and the creation of cafe-style pubs when he publishes his next Bill," Mr Holmes said.
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