ID to be mandatory in pubs for 18 to 25s

PEOPLE between 18 and 25 will soon have to carry ID if they want to drink in pubs, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said yesterday.

The onus will be on pub and nightclub owners to ensure people on their premises between these ages have identification that proves they are old enough to drink.

Pub owners who break the law, due to form part of the Intoxicating Liquor Bill in the coming months, may be temporarily shut down.

"The present law that allows a 16-year-old to be in a pub all day and up to closing time is going to have to come to an end," said the minister.

Mr McDowell was speaking at the presentation of Ferdia, a six-year-old Irish draught horse, to the Garda Síochána mounted unit in Dublin yesterday.

"There is no possibility of controlling consumption of alcohol by people under-age if a member of An Garda Síochána has to come into a pub and has to work out who is drinking bitter lemon and who has the Bacardi Breezer."

He said it simply was not possible to do that in a crowded pub.

Defending his plan to give local authorities power to set pub and nightclub closing times between 11pm to 2am, Mr McDowell said: "What's good for Temple Bar in Dublin is not necessarily good for Templemore in Co Tipperary."

It was no longer acceptable that 15-year-olds could get drunk in pubs and no one appeared to be able to stop them, he said. "This is a proposal which I believe will be reflected in the forthcoming report by the Intoxicating Liquor Commission."

However, Fine Gael's John Deasy described Mr McDowell's plan to allow local authorities to set pub closing times as "foolish and dangerous".

He said Mr McDowell's approach was irrational and totally counter-productive. "We have already liberalised drinking laws and the result has been an upsurge in street violence and anti-social behaviour. The move to further liberalise the law will only add more chaos to the havoc that already exists on the streets of the towns and cities across the country in the early hours of weekend mornings," he said.

Mr Deasy wants the drinking age raised from 18 to 20 years in an effort to curb excessive drinking. He also wants drink banned from all government functions.

"If we are to be serious about taking alcohol abuse seriously we are going to have to take definite views on it. There is no other way."

He said the minister was effectively creating a potential timebomb at a time when the promised 2,000 extra gardaí have failed to materialise and garda overtime had been cut from €69 million to €50m.

However, the National Youth Council attacked Fine Gael's proposal to raise the legal drinking age as an insult to adults, saying it would also result in greater strain on garda resources. "People's attitudes to drinking is formed by their peers and parents long before they reach 18," a spokesman said.